Why Backup your WordPress website?

• Crap happens. Things go wrong in the digital world.
• Your hosting server can go down.
• Your database on the server can get corrupted.
• You can get hacked.
• Your hosting company can disappear (for various reasons).
• You can get corrupted files when updating or installing software.
• A malicious script can install itself on your server.
• You can make a mistake when doing something on your website and break or erase something by accident. Trust me it happens.
• Restoring from a recent backup is usually faster and easier than trying to fix a broken site.

Where to back it up?

• Server side backups make for fast restores. This helps when your site is down, but your server and hosting company is still ok.
• In addition to a server side backup also have at least one offsite backup. This means on your own computer or on a cloud service like Dropbox. These will help if your hosting company or server goes belly up. Use these to restore to a new host.

What to backup?

• Make sure you have these three levels of backups:
  1. Database. This is essential. Backup your database often.
  2. Media library. This is where all your photos and documents are.
  3. Complete site. A complete site backup to be used for a full restore. This includes all WordPress files, plugins and themes.

How often should I backup?

• Daily: Database backups.
• Weekly: Media library as well as full site.

These are minimum backup schedules. More often might be needed for sites where new content is loaded regularly.

Do you have any questions for me? Do you need help with setting up a backup system for your website? We are here to help. Contact us now.