There are two types of people in the world: those who have lost data and those who will lose data.
If you fall into the former category, I imagine you have a robust backup plan in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If you’re lucky enough to have avoided data loss so far then listen up – this blog is for you.
Backing up your WordPress website is the best thing you can do to protect your site. By using solutions like remote data storage centres, backup plugins and data recovery software, you will be protected against the very real possibilities of being hacked, human error or problems with your hosting server.
If you back up your WordPress site you can avoid unnecessary stress, loss of income and negative press. And when it’s done right, your site can be restored straight back to its previous condition without having to panic populate your content again.
How to back up your WordPress site
YourWordPress MySQL Database is where all your text content, widgets and settings are stored. It is this part of your website that needs backing up to be able to restore your site exactly as how it was.
The database isn’t accessible via the File Manager or via FTP. Instead, it is stored on the server and cannot be copied or moved. It can only be exported and then subsequently re-imported via a database application liked phpMyAdmin.
If you’re not very technical, it can be tricky to do this or be sure you have done it correctly, so it’s often better to subscribe to a service to do the process for you.
How often should you back up your WordPress site?
You should back up your site in line with how frequently you update it. If you add new content daily, then you should aim to back it up daily. If you update it monthly, then a monthly backup is sufficient.
While you are at it, you should also backup your robots.txt, .htaccess, and wp-config.php files which are located in the public_html directory or WordPress root folder.
WordPress back up options
1. Web host backups
You can choose between a shared host or a managed host when it comes to backing up your site. A shared host is often less expensive though the backup is likely to occur randomly and, therefore, not something you can rely on to restore your website to the right version.
A managed host typically provides regular backups as part of their services with additional security protocols enabled to protect your site from cyber-crime. It’s worth the extra cost of signing up to a managed host to be sure you’ve got the best possible chance of recovering the most up-to-date version of your site.
2 . Off-site backups
It’s also a good idea to have “off-site” backups in case something goes wrong at the web host.
If youback up your site to the server you are running the site on, you won’t be protected if the hard drive crashes. If this happens, you’ll lose your whole site with nothing to restore it from which is why backing up your WordPress site off-site is the best option.
There are several ways that you can do this, depending on what you’re comfortable with. Though without a doubt, the best way to ensure complete peace of mind is to back up your site through a specialised service provider, such as WP Tech Support.
WP Tech Support can process a local and remote back up of your website, taking away the burden from you to remember to manually carry out and save the backups yourself. We back up your entire website to our secure cloud server every single day to ensure your site can be restored good as new if the absolute worst happens.
As we live in unpredictable times, having both an onsite and an off-site back up solution in place is sensible to help protect your business and ensure the survivability of your data and your reputation.
We make support easy for our customers and our online portal offers detailed reporting on a weekly basis. Ourrange of great value monthly plans are suitable for any budget, with discounts available for multiple sites.