Your webpage is protected by an insurance policy in the form of a WordPress backup. While things are going smoothly, it is tedious to think about, but it is essential to do so in the event that something goes wrong. Because WordPress is used to power around 40 percent of the websites on the internet today, you can be sure that something is always going wrong.
If you run an online business or have a webpage that gets a lot of visitors, backing up your WordPress website may feel like an overwhelming but important activity. This is especially true if you have a high-traffic website. Yet it isn’t necessarily the case. In this post, we will walk you through the process of creating a backup of your WordPress site in a matter of minutes while also ensuring that it will remain secure indefinitely.
What Exactly Are Backups in WordPress?
A full copy of your webpage, which may be recovered in the event that something goes wrong with your website, is what is referred to as a backup in WordPress. Using your web host, utilizing a dedicated WordPress backup plugin, or even attempting to do so manually are just some of the various methods by that a WordPress site can be backed up. On the other hand, not all backups are constructed in the same way. For your own peace of mind and to eliminate any possibility of accidentally deleting data from your page, you should use WordPress to create backups. This is of the utmost importance for e-commerce websites that contain data about customers and orders, as well as websites belonging to legal firms, for example. It is possible to lose substantial amounts of information and experience significant loss if a server crashes is infected with malware, or even if a simple human error occurs. The existence of backups offers protection against those possibilities. In this post, we will discuss the various ways to back up a WordPress site, as well as the method that is considered to be the most effective.
How To Back Up WordPress Website And What To Back Up
As it is impossible to successfully restore data from a partial backup of any kind, we do not recommend ever creating backups of just this or just that. You can find similar recommendations in other places. It is possible to restore only a portion of a website, such as a single file or plugin, but it is strongly recommended that you maintain a full backup of your WordPress installation. Whenever we say everything, it can be difficult to comprehend precisely what it is that we intend to convey. So, in this brief introduction, we will discuss the structure of your WordPress website.
Your WordPress website is comprised primarily of two different parts:
The files and The database.
The files include the core files for WordPress, files for plugins and themes, files for configuration and settings, and files that users have uploaded. Everything else, including user information, articles, pages, links, comments, and other forms of user-generated material, is stored in the database. This information is kept in the database in the form of tables, such as wp posts and wp comments, for instance. Your WordPress website is made up of all of these components combined.
As was indicated earlier, there are many other ways to create a backup of only the WordPress files or just the WordPress database that you will see in your options. Because it, therefore, becomes considerably more difficult to restore a website from a partial backup, we strongly recommend that you refrain from doing this. Always perform comprehensive backups of your WordPress installation, and then, thereafter, selectively restore the data you need.
How To Back Up a Website Using WordPress (3 methods)
When it comes to backing up your WordPress site, you primarily have three alternatives. This is arranged according to its usefulness, as determined by us.
- Use a plugin for WordPress that creates backups.
- Your website will be backed up by your web host.
- Create a copy of your website in the traditional way.
A. Using a plugin to create a backup of your WordPress site
Using a plugin is both the simplest and most dependable method for backing up a WordPress website. Rather than having to log into cPanel or Plesk and use those software programs to obtain copies of your website, backup plugins eliminate the need for you to do so. You can save a significant amount of time and work by scheduling automatic backups and using restores that only need one click.
B. Instructions on how to create a backup of your WordPress website using your web host
The majority of web hosting companies include backups as a standard component of their service offerings. However, this feature is occasionally sold separately or combined with hosting packages. In the event that their servers have any kind of issue, some hosts will always back up their data just in case. To begin the process of creating a backup of your WordPress website using your web host, you will first need to determine whether or not backups are included in your current plan. Carefully read the conditions of the agreement that you have entered into, or contact their support team. After you have determined this, there are only a few steps left to take in order to set up backups for your web host:
1. After logging into the control panel for your hosting account, click on the website that you wish to back up.
2. Search for an alternative course of action. Either a menu or the navigation panel will contain this information.
3. To finish the WordPress backup, follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
You are able to set up automatic scheduled backups with some web providers. You can also customize which sections of the website you want to back up and how many copies of each backup you want to keep.
C. Individually backing up a WordPress site and how to do it
The manual backup process is the least efficient use of time and also the most laborious. A number of how committed an individual may be, if they are forced to rely on a manual procedure for backing up their data, there is a good risk that they will begin taking shortcuts and neglecting backups. Performing manual backups takes a lot of time, which is time that could, in all honesty, be better spent doing it as it is much more successful.
Having said that, it is beneficial to be familiar with the specifics of how to perform a manual backup; it is analogous to being able to drive a stick shift when both of these cars are completely automated.
When it comes to manual backups, the first thing you need to realize is that in order to create a full backup of WordPress, you will need to create two backups that are just partial. This indicates that you must create backups of the files and the database independently and then save both sets of backups together at regular intervals.
File backups:
cPanel: cPanel is a widely used control panel software, and the majority of website providers offer it to their customers free of charge. On the other hand, your web host might use a different control panel, such as Webmin or Plesk. You will have access to a tool similar to File Manager within cPanel or Plesk, which will make it possible for you to view the files associated with your website.
FTP: In the event that your web host does not offer a control panel, you will need to use FTP in order to download a copy of your website’s files. You will also need an FTP program such as FileZilla in order to connect to your website if you choose to go this route. The process will take a somewhat longer time. In order to access your database and perform backups, if you have access to cPanel, click on the phpMyAdmin icon. You will need the login information for your database, which can be found in the wp-config file of your WordPress installation or in your hosting account.
Why keeping backups of your WordPress site is essential
There are many different things that could go wrong with a website that uses WordPress. Because of this, you need to have a current WordPress backup kept on an external server, that is, in a location that is different from the domain controller that your web host uses to host your website. This will safeguard it in the event that it fails or if data is accidentally destroyed.
Your website, as well as the countless hours of labor and resources that you have put into it, may be salvaged by using more recent backups under the following circumstances:
Problems with the web host or the server
Your website is stored on a server, which is simply a computer, and your web host is responsible for maintaining the server. Servers, like any other type of computer, are susceptible to crashing for a variety of different reasons. Software problems can cause servers to become corrupted in ways that are impossible to recover from. Errors in network connections can occur when there is a power outage, a surge in the electrical supply, or even when animals physically destroy the wires by gnawing on them.
Even environmental problems such as natural disasters can result in the server becoming unavailable to users. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy triggered floods and power disruptions in numerous data centers located in the state of New York, disrupting the operation of millions of websites as a result. In a separate incident that took place in May of 2021, a fire completely gutted one of the data centers that belonged to OVHCloud.
As a result, it is essential to have a backup of WordPress stored somewhere else. If your backups are kept on the same server or even with the same host, there is always a possibility that you could lose both of them, in which case there is no chance of getting your website back. If this is the case, you should consider moving your backups to a separate server. If, however, you have backups stored in a location that is separate from the host, you will be able to easily restore your website on a different server.
Problems caused by the installation or the updating of software
Your website’s functionality can be significantly improved by using themes and plugins. Nevertheless, due to the fact that these add-ons are frequently created by a variety of different programmers, they may not always work well together. It is not a solution to avoid using plugins and themes, but you may prepare for the possibility of compatibility difficulties that could cause your website to become inaccessible.
Taking a backup of your WordPress site before installing any new software or making any updates is the quickest and easiest method. In point of fact, whenever any theme or plugin receives an update, BlogVault conducts an automatic visual regression. You are able to immediately revert to the prior version of the website in the event that discrepancies are discovered there.
As a result, it is essential to create a backup of your WordPress site, particularly before updating more complicated plugins like Yoast, WooCommerce, and Elementor.
Infections caused by malware
Every day, hackers gain unauthorized access to an average of 30,000 websites. Even the most advanced security measures do not offer complete protection.
Malware may be extremely disruptive and costly to a company, but it does so in a number of distinct ways. A phishing attack or redirect malware will try to trick visitors to your website into divulging their personal information in order to be redirected to a spam website. Redirect malware will steal organic traffic and visitors from your website and send them to the spam website instead. In attacks known as defacements, some hackers just remove all of the data and content from websites.
A security plugin such as MalCare can eliminate the majority of hacks from your website in a matter of minutes; however, it is unable to restore content and files that were deleted by a hacker who was acting maliciously. In this particular situation, having backups is what will save the day.
Because backups themselves can also be infected with malicious software, we do not typically recommend using backups as a method for recovering from malware attacks. Yet, this is the sole recourse available to you in the event that your website has been defaced.
Human mistake
Errors caused by humans are unavoidable in all aspects of human endeavor, including the management of a website. It is possible that you will forget to renew the hosting on time or that pages or posts will be removed or altered inadvertently. Or, there may be mistakes in judgment, such as when you apply some settings that result in a side effect or when you make certain changes to the UI but then decide that you don’t like it and want to revert to the previous version. In these cases, you may want to revert to the earlier version. Maintaining regular backups of your website will help you avoid getting stuck in precarious situations like the one you’re in right now.
Before carrying out significant actions, such as migrating a website or redesigning it, it is generally considered to be good practice to create backups of the data involved.
As has been established, each of the aforementioned circumstances carries the potential to result in a loss of resources and revenue and, in the direst of outcomes, the loss of the entire website. For this reason, it is essential to have external backups that are taken on a regular basis so that you will always have a recent WordPress backup available to restore in the event that things do not go according to plan.
Because you may simply start over after restoring a backup, troubleshooting can be shortened by a number of hours when using backups.
How frequently should you back up your WordPress site?
Now that you are aware of how significant backups are, it is essential that you determine how frequently a copy of your website needs to be backed up.
We believe that daily backups are the best choice for the vast majority of websites because they record all of the updates that occur within a 24-hour period. In the event that an error occurs, the amount of work that is lost is minimal and is simple to recover.
Even for somewhat unchanging websites like brochure websites, which are examples of static websites, we nevertheless advise making daily backups. Themes and plugins have to be kept up to date. However, keeping them updated on a monthly or even weekly basis might occasionally overlook significant changes.
Real-time backups are another option for websites with significant traffic or online shops that sell digital goods. In this case, the alterations that took place in a period of 24 hours are significant and are difficult to reverse. Real-time backups are the only solution that makes sense for e-commerce companies because the data associated with transactions, orders, and customers are constantly being updated. Before making any significant changes to your system, such as upgrades, migrations, or UI adjustments, you may also want to think about performing an on-demand backup of your data. This will ensure that you have a recent backup that you may use as a fallback in the event that things do not go according to plan.
Conclusion:
Your WordPress backups are an essential component of the website maintenance arsenal you need to have. You should also be familiar with how to repair a WordPress site in the event that it becomes corrupted after you have successfully backed it up.