Importance of website backups and how to perform them

A website backup is a copy of all of the important files and folders on your website. Each backup of your website should include databases, images, site code files, and any other files used by your site.

It is extremely important to create regular backups of your website. Anything can happen, such as compromising the security of your web server or site, injection of malware, hacker attacks, or an error by your web host, which can lead to your website being accidentally deleted or hacked. . If you don't have a backup of your site, there is nothing you can do to get it back.

Backups ensure that even if something happens to your website, you can revert to the last backup or just restore the site with just a few clicks.

Importance of website backups

Nowadays, many web hosting companies like WP Server or Hostinger offer free and regular backups of all sites. The cheapest web hosts usually charge extra fees for backups, and they don't guarantee regular backups of your site.

You can't leave this task to just anyone, because the slightest mistake from your web host can force you to start from scratch.

A website is dynamic by definition, the content is generally regularly updated, which is why regular backups are necessary. Having a strong backup system will allow you to get it back online quickly if anything happens. You can also lose your rankings and traffic if your website is down for several days; so backups can help you avoid this as well.

Backups should always be kept in a different location and not on the same server where your site is hosted, as it may crash or become infected with malware.

Hackers can even remotely delete all files from your server if they happen to gain access to your web space. Likewise, when you do a major update to your site and it doesn't work, you can easily go back using your last backup.

Website backups are also used if you want to change hosts for some reason. With the help of your backup, you can migrate to a new host in just a few minutes.

A good backup strategy for your data

The frequency of backups depends on the risk to your site and the frequency of updates to your website. If you own and manage multiple websites, it is good to take daily backups and store them in a safe place like the cloud or your local computer that is easily accessible. It is also recommended that you have at least two backups of your site in case one of them gets corrupted.

For static sites that don't change frequently, a monthly or weekly backup is the right solution. But for big sites like eCommerce sites where the data changes hourly, you should take a backup every hour to make sure that you don't lose valuable customer data.

You can also back up your website database more often than the full backup because the database may change more frequently than your website files. This can speed up the entire backup process.

How to back up your website

There are several types of methods for performing backups:

1) Manual backup

You can use an FTP manager to back up your website files to your local computer. But this method is not automated, and you will need to do it regularly if you want to get the latest backups.

Additionally, websites larger than 1 GB may take a while to fully download.

2) Automated backups

If you manage more than one website or want to perform more secure backups, it is best to automate all of your backup processes so that you can devote your time to other more productive activities.

Most good web hosts also offer one-click restore and download of your backups. This is the case of WP Server and its console that allow you to easily manage your backups and restores!

You can schedule your backups on a daily, bi-weekly, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis by choosing the appropriate time of day to initiate your backups.

If you are using a CMS like WordPress, there are plenty of free plugins that perform automatic backups and you can back up your site to the cloud directly to services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive, etc.

Some of the more popular WordPress backup plugins are UpdraftPlus, Jetpack, Duplicator, and All-in-one WP Migration.

With automated backups, you just have to set them up, then forget about them and focus on growing your business.