As part of the overall management of your website, it’s essential for site owners to create a full backup of their website. This protects your site against possible breakdown, data loss, or cyber hacks.
How to perform a full website backup is one of the most frequently asked questions here at Vodien. So we decided to answer that question in this comprehensive article.
Each time we upload images or videos, add texts, and install plugins, we change certain aspects to our website. We’d like to think that it will perform at its best all the time, but that’s not always the case. It can sometimes be prone to security issues and data loss, especially when certain security measures are not implemented.
A website backup is a secondary copy of your site for restoration in case something goes wrong. It is a failsafe measure that can save you from unwanted stress and lost revenue.
Think of it as saving several copies of your songs, videos and other personal files in different backup storages devices like flash drives and external hard drives. You turn to these backup copies in case something goes wrong with the main file.
Whether you own a small or large website, it’s scary to think that anyone can fall victim to high-scale data breaches. We recommend all Vodien customers to take the necessary steps to back up their websites regularly and convert to an HTTPs website.
Here are some reasons why it’s essential to create a backup for your site:
READ: 7 Smart Tips to Protect Your Site Before a WordPress Update
There are two essential components that you need to backup for your WordPress site:
To ensure that you have a copy of your website, we recommend that you do a full website backup both for wp-content folder and MySQL database. Next, we’re going to show you how to create a full backup copy of your website.
The fastest way to do this is through FTP or File Transfer Protocol. We suggest that you use Filezilla because it’s free and it works. It allows you to upload or download files to and from a remote server. It’s the oldest method of transferring files through the Internet.
To backup through Filezilla:
WordPress database can be backed up like any other databases. Here’s a simple tutorial on how to do a MySQL database backup.
If you have several MySQL databases and don’t know which one your site is running on, open your wp-config.php file inside the WordPress root folder where the database name should be next to the DB_NAME option.
Backup Plugins
To install a backup plugin and download a backup file, here’s how:
Here are some of the backup plugins you might want to try:
cPanel Backup
To back up your entire site via cPanel, follow these steps:
READ: How to Bulletproof your cPanel Account from Hackers
Most web hosts already include scheduled backup service in their web hosting plans. Here at Vodien, we provide one remote automatic website backup per week for all our web hosting plans. Talk to your web host and see if they do offer such backup service too.
Depending on the type of web hosting plan you have, your web host might offer a Data Backup or Disaster Recovery Backup option bundled with your plan. Discuss these options with your web host and choose which one will work for your site.
It would be great if you can also do the manual website backup along with the backup copy sent by your web host. In this way, you still completely control your website.
Another great website backup solution is through a special backup service provider like Jet Backup Manager. It processes local and remote backup of your site simultaneously. It transfers WordPress files to their servers— saving you from manually doing the backup yourself.
This allows you to save your backup copies in a remotely different location. If anything bad happens to your local drives, you can recover them with no worries.
Regardless of how frequently you post, do website backup regularly. If you post at least 30 times a day, you have to create more backups as well. Besides that, we recommend that you discuss your backup solutions with your web host.
There's no doubt that that having a solid backup solution for your WordPress site is a must. Pick any of the backup solutions mentioned above, and expect that to restore your site in no time.
Along with that, we’re happy to announce to all our Vodien clients that we provide Website Daily Backup and Recovery Service on top of all our web hosting plans. Focus on your business productivity while we do the backing up for you!
Get at least 7 days worth of backup copies daily. Don't worry about forgetting to create copies for your website. Our system will do it for you.
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