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For many site owners, your WordPress website represents either a source of income, a key marketing element, or (at the least) sentiment for your chosen subject. Regardless of your reasoning, keeping a backup of your WordPress website is a sound idea. While you may not use the backup much, it’s a solid-gold insurance policy against malicious intent, hacks, and more. Also, you can implement a backup strategy in several ways. This means you have flexibility, too. This post will look at three ways to back up a WordPress website.
We’ll go from the toughest to the most straightforward method – a manual backup is the first technique.
1. Carry Out a Manual Backup
Spoiler alert: We don’t recommend carrying out a manual backup in most cases. However, it’s an excellent supplementary way to keep your site’s files safe. A manual (or any) backup has two elements: your files and your database.
As such, you must retain both parts to complete a full backup. There are some prerequisites to consider before you do this:
- You’ll want to have a way to access the files on your server. This could be through your hosting control panel (such as Plesk, cPanel, or others) or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
- If you choose the latter route (again, we recommend it), you’ll need to know how to use SFTP and a suitable SFTP client such as Cyberduck, Transmit, or FileZilla.
- You’ll also need to access this to back up your database. Most hosts will let you do this through Adminer or phpMyAdmin. You can even use a tool such as TablePlus or Sequel Ace to log into the database from your computer.
Once you have these elements in place, you can begin. The first step is to copy over your site’s files, and while the WordPress support pages offer a solution, we can sum up the process:
- Log into your site through SFTP.
- Locate your site’s wp-content folder.
- Copy the contents to your local computer.
You won’t need to copy all of the core files because a fresh install can add these to your server. What’s more, your wp-content folder contains your theme, plugin, and media information. This is almost your entire site and will be what you need to restore it.
As for your database, the exact method to export this depends on what you use to connect to it. Most will use phpMyAdmin, and again, WordPress’ support pages run through the process:
- Log into your database through phpMyAdmin.
- Locate your site’s database tables.
- Head to the Export tab and choose the Quick method and SQL format.
Between this and your site’s wp-content folder, you’ll have a full site backup – although there are better ways to proceed, as we’ll discuss next.
2. Use Your Host’s Functionality
We don’t have the exact numbers, but we’d bet many of you will gravitate to your host’s backup options. This fantastic option can straddle a line between automating the process and setting up a strategy for your needs. For example, top-tier WordPress host Kinsta offers a robust backup service for free:
Backup a WordPress Website
You also have the option to increase the backup frequency, such as four times a day or hourly. Kinsta will also generate backups on a ‘per-action’ basis. This means you’ll have a backup ready if you use your staging environment and other triggers.
If your host doesn’t include the level of backup functionality you’d like, WP Tech Support provides backups on your behalf every day on Standard and Pro plans. This frequency increases for higher-tiered users. Moreover, we store backups offsite, so they’re protected yet ready for use.
There’s lots more a WordPress maintenance service can do for you. An expert-performed combined service and backup strategy could keep your site in excellent condition. For example, you can leverage a robust Web Application Firewall (WAF), daily malware scans, regular updates, and more without lifting a finger.
3. Install and Activate a Dedicated Plugin
WordPress wouldn’t be the platform it is without its plugin ecosystem. As such, there are myriad ways to back up a WordPress website using a dedicated plugin.
However, we don’t recommend choosing any plugin that offers backup functionality. You’ll want to select with thought, as a poorly coded plugin could worsen things. However, we already talk about our favorite plugin for the task elsewhere on the WP Tech Support blog —UpdraftPlus.
This plugin is popular, well-maintained, and completely free to use. Also, it’s a breeze to set into motion. We cover everything you need to know about this plugin in another article, although it’s intuitive and straightforward.
In Summary
Most advice on running a WordPress website will tell you to have a complete backup of your site and database in case the worst happens. The good news is that WordPress offers flexible options to do so, and no one requires any more technical knowledge than you likely already have or could learn.
For example, you can do a full backup without your host’s support or a plugin. However, this requires SFTP knowledge, and you’ll need to poke around your server for your core files. Instead, you’ll have a better experience using whatever backup functionality your host provides, as this will be baked into your dashboard. However, the classic approach with WordPress is to use a plugin; this will be the straightforward option that offers as much power as you need.
Do you have a different technique for backing up a WordPress website? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!