How secure is your WordPress website? Do you think there is a need to back it up for eventualities?
If you are like the average business owner or self-employed professional who owns a WordPress website, chances are you overlook website backups. You are not alone – many WordPress website owners don’t know how to backup WordPress. Most don’t even realize that not backing up their sites is a major security risk.
You don't have to be technically inclined to back up your WordPress website and backing up your site is something you can setup yourself.
There are various ways to backup your WordPress website. Here, we will focus on three broad methods that small business owners or anyone at all can use.
What is a WordPress Backup?
A WordPress backup is a copy of your WordPress website that you can restore whenever something goes wrong with your site. Your backup will contain your database, files, and folders. It can be stored in different locations, including your desktop, hosting server, and other forms of file storage servers.
A WordPress website backup is like an insurance policy that protects your effort, time, money and resources invested in your WordPress website.
Why is a WordPress Backup so Important?
As the most popular CMS (Content Management System), WordPress has come a long way. Though it has robust security features, there is still a chance that you can lose your website to the activities of hackers and cybercriminals. A backup serves as a disaster recovery measure, should a section of your website or the entire site be compromised.
A WordPress backup will also come to your rescue if you make a mistake with code, plugins, your site theme, or the core WordPress files. If your website is not working properly because of a change you or someone else made, you can revert to the previous version by recovering from your backup.
Three WordPress Backup Methods
Here are three reliable ways to backup your WordPress website:
1. Backup Through Your Website Host
Using your hosting company for WordPress backup is the simplest way to do it. You have to choose a hosting company that offers a full, daily backup of your WordPress website. Many hosting companies include backups with hosting plans and some charge a small fee. This is something you should consider when choosing a company to host your site.
A reliable hosting company will offer complete, daily backups. You can also take things to the next level by logging in and downloading a copy of your website to store on a hard drive. It's always a good plan to have multiple copies.
2. Backup WordPress Website Manually
It is possible to backup your WordPress website manually, but this is not something you can easily handle if you are not technically inclined. However, if you are technically adept, embrace challenges and are comfortable with WordPress, then you can backup your site manually.
If you choose the manual method to backup your WordPress website, you will need to back up your files and database individually. You can backup files via cPanel and SFTP, and your database via your hosting panel. Again, skip the manual method if you are not technically inclined.
3. Automatic Backup with Plugins
There are WordPress plugins that make backing up your websites easy and convenient. Most of these plugins are relatively easy to use and all you need to do is install them, configure a few settings, and your website will back up automatically on a regular schedule.
There are several wonderful WordPress backup plugins, but the most popular ones include UpdraftPlus, VaultPress, BackupBuddy, BlogVault, BoldedGrid Backup, and BackWPup. Research your options before making a choice.
Backup Your WordPress Website the Right Way
We can’t overemphasize the need to backup your website on a regular schedule. A backup is your disaster recovery measure – it will come to your rescue when you are at risk of losing everything on your website, or even just part of it.
We’ve discussed three general ways to backup a WordPress website here. For a beginner, automatic backup with plugins is the most convenient method. Make sure you choose a reliable plugin.
Do you need more information or professional assistance to back up your website? Contact us, and we will be glad to help.