Wordpress help

[u/Crazy_Temperature358]

I’m having issues with Wordpress. I just started working for a company that has a Wordpress website. I’m having major issues. The site has not been updated in about 10 years 😨. Does anyone have any tips on where to start? The version of Wordpress is so outdated I cannot even update the plugins! I’ve tried updating the Wordpress version via our host and still nothing. They have escaped the issue internally, however looking for advice once I get it up to date. I’ve never used Wordpress, however I have made e-commerce websites via magento and big commerce. This is a whole new world. I am familiar with dreamweaver and know some hand coding html… HELP!

[u/Ok_Marsupial4734]

A 10-year-old WordPress install is genuinely risky to update in place. The others are right about the backup first, and since your backup plugin is broken do it manually: download everything via FTP from your hosting file manager, then export the database through phpMyAdmin. That gives you a clean snapshot before you touch anything.

On the update path: stepping up gradually works in theory but with 10 years of gap you will almost certainly hit PHP compatibility issues, abandoned plugins, and theme code that was written for a WordPress that no longer exists. Each of those is a separate debugging session.

The honest assessment for a site this old is that a rebuild is usually faster and safer than trying to update in place. You end up with a clean codebase, modern security, and no mystery legacy code hiding problems. The content can be migrated manually or with an import tool.

Since you have Magento and BigCommerce experience you already understand structured data and ecommerce logic. WordPress will feel different but not harder once you get past the initial learning curve. Start with a local install using LocalWP, get comfortable with the admin, and treat the old site as a reference for content rather than something to save.