[UPDATED] 5 Critical Reasons You Should Backup Your Data

Imagine this.  

You have a cool website that attracts a massive traffic volume each month.  

Your business is doing great, and it’s growing more than you could ever imagine. Then one day, due to unforeseen circumstances, your website’s gone, and your customers have no choice but to look elsewhere.  

This scenario might sound crazy, but it does happen. What’s even more painful is when you don’t have a website backup in place, all the time, effort and money you spent are gone along with it.  

Website backup means making a copy of all your website data.   

In this article, let’s dive deeper into why website and email backup are a must for every website owner out there.

Why do I need to back up my website?

Website backup is important because it’s the only way to restore your data in case a problem arises.  

Whether you make a mistake in editing your site, or something scary happens like hacking and cyberattacks, performing website and email backup is the greatest insurance any business owner can invest in.

5 Reasons to Perform Website and Email Backups  

Beware of malicious hackers

If you’re using WordPress, your chances of getting hacked could be higher since it’s one of the most widely used online publishing platforms – and a favourite target among spammers and hackers.  

This could spell danger for you. If you’re not maintaining website backups and installing the latest software updates, you’re going to lose serious bucks out of your pocket.  

70% of small businesses are unprepared to deal with cyberattacks – and trust me, you don’t want to be a part of that statistic.   

Not all web hosting companies offer free daily backup

Believe it or not, some web hosting service providers don’t offer regular backup features unless you pay for a full backup service. Here at Vodien, we’re happy to say we offer free weekly or daily backup to our customers, which they can use to roll their website back to its latest working version in case it isn’t working.  

We recommend having a secondary backup solution. You can save a copy on a cloud backup solution, or a personal hard drive. In this way, you have another copy ready if your hosting company’s shared servers experience outages.

READ: Data Backup vs Disaster Recovery (+Terms You Need to Know)  

Malware and viruses that destroy documents

People put malware and viruses on the internet to intentionally harm your site. And you might unknowingly inject your websites and emails with viruses and malware through a third-party plugin or theme.  

Performing backups ensures you can restore all the damage done by malware. Of course, having a backup does not prevent malware attacks, but it gives you peace of mind when needed.  

Accidents happen

Mistakes happen even by the most tech-savvy website owners. For example, you could install the incorrect plugin or module, delete a necessary file, and damage the site’s normal operations.  

Whatever that mistake is, you’ll be glad that you have a backup ready when such uncertainties occur.  

Server outages can cause downtime 

No web host can ever guarantee 100% reliability and uptime, no matter how hyped up they seem to be. Datacenters may experience downtime or outages from time to time due to network failure or hard drive errors.  

Although most people think their hosting provider protects them from such threats, they may not have the latest copy of your website or data. So, it’s better to be prepared.  

How to Back Up Your Website and Protect Your Biz

Let’s go step by step on how to implement a website backup to create an extra layer of safety.  

• Check with your web host and see if they offer a free backup service along with your hosting.  

For Vodien customers, we offer a free backup service for all web hosting and business web hosting plans. This includes full backups for accounts, files, databases, emails, and many more.

READ: Cloud Backup: Reasons Why It Is Important for Your Business Today 

• Check your control panel  

See if you have a free backup wizard tool to back up your files manually. Check if you have the option for full or partial backup for your home directory, MySQL databases, email forwarders, and filters.  

• Install a backup plugin  

For those using WordPress, there are several plugins that allow you to back up your site.  

Before installing, check if the plugin is updated to its latest version and has excellent reviews from other users. Some of these backup plugins allow you to schedule backups and send them automatically to your cloud storage.  

• Manually save a copy to your computer  

Aside from doing any of the three methods mentioned above, a good rule of thumb is to save a secondary copy to your computer folder, removable storage drive (USB drive), or a hard drive!  

A backup a day keeps the catastrophe away

Whichever method you choose, it’s crucial to back up your website. Remember that a website backup is one of the most critical steps in ensuring your business succeeds. Don’t hesitate to back it up today.