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What should I do about updating the website code and plugins?
Within the first year of your website being published, it should be safe to click update options quite safely without making a new backup of the installation or plugins (WordPress version and plugins).
Even beyond this, because we use a lot of custom code and use as few plugins as possible (keeping the site code light and more easily maintained), it is rare that there are issues with clicking those updates.
Nevertheless, it is a good practice to make backups of your website as you update the WordPress version and/or plugins (and as you add fresh content).
You can install a plugin like Updraft which will give you the option to save the last 1 or more (your choice how many) backups to an external server (like Dropbox or Google Drive) or we can make backups for you.
You’ll also find that hosting companies have at least one backup from the last 30 days that can help you restore things if you run into trouble (and notice it in time).
Your hosting company will also upgrade the versions of PHP they support from time to time. This is the code-base on which WordPress runs. It is a good practice for both security and efficiency to switch your site to run on the highest available version of PHP when they do. Again, you should make a full backup of your website files and database before making this switch (even though you can usually switch back if problems occur).
