if (select count(column) from table) > 0 then

You cannot directly use a SQL statement in a PL/SQL expression:

SQL> begin
  2     if (select count(*) from dual) >= 1 then
  3        null;
  4     end if;
  5  end;
  6  /
        if (select count(*) from dual) >= 1 then
            *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-06550: line 2, column 6:
PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "SELECT" when expecting one of the following:
...
...

You must use a variable instead:

SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL>
SQL> declare
  2     v_count number;
  3  begin
  4     select count(*) into v_count from dual;
  5
  6     if v_count >= 1 then
  7             dbms_output.put_line('Pass');
  8     end if;
  9  end;
 10  /
Pass

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Of course, you may be able to do the whole thing in SQL:

update my_table
set x = y
where (select count(*) from other_table) >= 1;

It's difficult to prove that something is not possible. Other than the simple test case above, you can look at the syntax diagram for the IF statement; you won't see a SELECT statement in any of the branches.

Edit:

The oracle tag was not on the question when this answer was offered, and apparently it doesn't work with oracle, but it does work with at least postgres and mysql

No, just use the value directly:

begin
  if (select count(*) from table) > 0 then
     update table
  end if;
end;

Note there is no need for an "else".

Edited

You can simply do it all within the update statement (ie no if construct):

update table
set ...
where ...
and exists (select 'x' from table where ...)

not so elegant but you dont need to declare any variable:

for k in (select max(1) from table where 1 = 1) loop
    update x where column = value;
end loop;