Automated WordPress Backups are your Safety Blanket
WordPress backups are easy to setup and one day you will be thankful that you took the time to sort it out.
Does this sound familiar:
You have done a lot of work on your new website and you are now making changes and adding new blog posts as your business develops. But we have all had those situations where we do something, and we often don’t know what it is, and all your website, or perhaps part of it gets messed up. It’s very frustrating isn’t it.
But you have a copy of your files and database don’t you? Oh, now I feel sorry for you if you are in website hell and do not have a backup to hand – that is not a good place to be.
Beat the Hackers
Having a backup of your website is also going to save you a lot of money if your website gets hacked.
Backup those WordPress Files and the Database
WordPress is made up of files and a database. If you don’t backup both of these components then you will not have what you need to put your website back together again.
Where do you Store your WordPress Backups?
You can use cloud storage products like Google Drive, OneDrive or DropBox to store your backup files. Obviously you need to make sure you have enough space for each backup. You can also have your backup file emailed to you. The problem with this is that your backup file may be too large for your email provider so that is something else you need to consider.
What are your Options for your Automated WordPress Backups?
- Your web hosting company may do this for you. You need to ask how often they perform the backup and what is the procedure for restoring your website. Regular automated backups is not a service offered by default by all companies.
- Your web designer may be able to offer this as a service. Again please ask them this direct question and don’t assume that they do. Once a website is done and dusted and everything is handed over to you then you are responsible for maintaining and backing up your website – unless you have opted for an ongoing maintenance plan.
- There are many plugins that will help with backing up your website. My favourites are UpdraftPlus and WP All in One Security. With both of these plugins you can save your backup to a virtual location of your choice.
- You can manually login to your web hosting dashboard and create a backup EVERY time you make a change.
- You can use something called File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to download the website files and phpmyadmin to get a copy of the database. I wouldn’t recommend this option but it is one way to do it for free. You would be copying the website to your own computer. Automating this option is a bit tricky. I’m thinking I should remove this option but for completeness I will leave it.
Your WordPress Backup Strategy
- How are you going to do this? Will you pay someone to sort it all out for you? Will your web hosts do it? Or will you sort it out yourself?
- How much storage space will you need? Ask your webs hosts how large your website is now and then add some extra space if you using pictures on most posts and pages.
- How often do you need to schedule a backup for? This will depend on how often you edit existing content or add new content.
- How will you restore your website if you have to?
Conclusion
If you have had a disaster with your website and have lost everything then now is the time to take action to prevent it happening again.
So why not sit down for 30 minutes and think through what you have just read and work out the best way to backup your WordPress website today?
Automating your WordPress backups will give you peace of mind if the worst were to happen.
