Updates for WordPress and its various plug-ins come thick and fast these days. It is a heavily targeted platform because of its success, popularity and open source code. It's important to ensure that any installation does not use any more plug-ins than it absolutely needs to - so before worrying about updating plug-ins, ensure that you are not holding onto any plug-ins that are no longer required. It's also important to note that a deactivated plug-in still poses a risk if a vulnerability exists within its code, as the code will continue to reside in your Wordpress installation until it is removed.

For WordPress core and all the plug-ins deemed essential, it's important to have an update regime in place. We recommend that all small/minor plug-ins are set to auto update. However, it's not as clear cut when it comes to larger plug-ins such as Woocommerce. In the past, we have seen Woocommerce auto updates break sites. We have seen this in two ways: one, where the update itself contains a bug: this is hard to protect against if you have auto updates, turned on; the other is simply down to a conflict with customisations. The nature of Woocommerce is that it's a substantial plug-in, and many users will have significantly customised their checkout, this can mean that template, hooks and dependent modules can all be impacted when Woocommerce is updated.

1) Enable auto updates for smaller plug-ins

2) Enable auto updates for WordPress core

3) Echedule manual update and review process for Woocommerce and any custom code.

1) delete themes that are not in use or not not likely to be used.
In reality, this normally means deleting everything apart from your live theme and the most recent WordPress default theme (which maybe helpful in debugging)

2) update any standard themes

3) schedule a review of any custom theme you are using. This is especially relevant if you are planning to upgrade Woocommerce.