Benefits of Updating Your Business’s Sitefinity Site The ins and outs of upgrading your Sitefinity website There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and new versions of software and systems coming out. The third is usually positive but can sometimes be viewed as a hassle and a pain. You have to back up your information, download the new version, and make changes to your files in order to get them to work correctly with the new version. Telerik has thankfully developed a system and steps that make updating its Sitefinity CMS platform to a newer version easy for its users. Below are some benefits of updating as well as some tips and best practices for making upgrading as simple as possible. Benefits of Upgrading There are numerous benefits and advantages that come with upgrading Sitefinity and staying current with the latest versions. Upgrading to a newer version will provide you with improved performance as well as better site search optimization. New versions will also have fixed bugs that were found by users in the previous versions. Updating will also supply you with new features and enhancements to the platform. What Happens if You Don’t Upgrade? Some choose not to upgrade because of the hassle associated with doing it. This, however, is a major mistake that could cost you in the long run. By forgoing an update you will have to keep dealing with the bugs and issues that are part of the current version that you are using that are fixed in the updated one. If you continue to decline upgrades, you will eventually be stuck with a version that won’t work with certain browsers and software. By that point, you will basically be forced to upgrade and have to make a big version leap, like from a fourth edition to a seventh, which will be difficult and far more time-consuming than upgrading every time a new version is released. Sitefinity Project Manager When upgrading Sitefinity, one of the first steps is to download the Sitefinity Project Manager of the Sitefinity version that you want to upgrade to. The Upgrade function of the Sitefinity Project Manager allows you to update projects that you created in previous versions to the new version of Sitefinity. Following the steps laid in the general Upgrade Documentation will help you easily upgrade your Sitefinity site. Employ an Expert While Sitefinity has tried to make it easy for almost anyone to upgrade Sitefinity, it is still a wise decision to call in the experts. Find a developer or team of developers that are familiar with the Sitefinity update process and have experience updating clients’ Sitefinity CMS websites. They will know the ins and outs of updating as well as the best practices. A well-seasoned developer may also have some tricks that make the upgrade go quickly and much smoother than if you would have attempted to do the upgrade on your own. Clarity Can Help Our Sitefinity developers at Clarity are highly skilled at creating custom websites and updating sites that others have built. We have worked with a variety of different content management systems, including Sitefinity, and know the ins and outs of each. Our team has done numerous Sitefinity implementations and upgrades for many of our clients. For more tips on updating Sitefinity or to speak with an expert about upgrading your Sitefinity site, call or click to contact us today!