There are plenty of glamorous things in business, fancy sales campaigns, new service launches, closing a big sale and that one team member who insists AI will “replace everything any minute now.”
And then there’s website maintenance: CMS patches, plugin updates, minor version bumps, security fixes, you know, the steamed broccoli of business tasks. We all know they’re good for you… but not things anyone is getting too jazzed about.
But here’s the thing: the boring stuff is usually what keeps the exciting stuff from falling apart.
What Happens When Updates Get Skipped
Website updates are the business equivalent of getting an oil change. Nobody brags about doing them, but everyone remembers the time they forgot and ended up stranded at the side of the road. And if you think “okay, but surely a couple missed updates can’t really cause a disaster,” let’s take a look at some famous cases where that exact assumption aged… poorly.
High Profile Examples of Small Misses Turning Into Big Problems
Equifax famously failed to install a critical software patch — one that had been available for months — and hackers waltzed right in. The result? One of the biggest data breaches in history, massive fines, a PR nightmare, and millions of people suddenly questioning whether Equifax should even be allowed near their credit score again.
Then there’s Mossack Fonseca, the law firm behind the Panama Papers fiasco. Investigators later found that their website was running outdated versions of WordPress, Drupal, AND a vulnerable slider plugin. Yes, a slider plugin helped kick off an international scandal. Imagine losing your entire company because someone didn’t update the thing that makes pictures swoosh side-to-side.
And even major news organizations aren’t immune. Reuters had its WordPress blogging platform hacked after attackers exploited outdated software. Hackers got in, published fake stories, and caused a global credibility headache, all because their WordPress install missed some basic updates.
The Real Cost for Growing Businesses
Now, your business probably isn’t handling 147 million credit files, spilling international secrets, or broadcasting news to the entire world…but the lesson is exactly the same:
When routine maintenance slips, it doesn’t just affect “the website.”
It affects sales, customer experience, operational efficiency, team workload, and brand trust.
Why Routine Updates Protect Revenue and Trust
For a growing business, skipped updates can lead to:
- Lead forms that break without warning
- Checkout pages that quietly tank revenue
- Support portals that stop sending tickets
- Sales teams are losing opportunities because pages won’t load
- Operations teams are wasting hours troubleshooting problems that an update would’ve prevented
- Customers are wondering if your brand is reliable, if your website… isn’t
These aren’t headline-grabbing disasters but they’re the avoidable everyday disruptions that hit smaller businesses the hardest.
Website updates may never be sexy. They may never earn applause. But keeping your systems current is one of the easiest ways to protect revenue, support your teams, keep operations running smoothly, and make sure potential customers trust you long before they ever speak to someone on your team.
Think you might need to tighten things up and remove the risk before it becomes a problem?