How To Back Up A WordPress Site

If your hosting service provider were to shut down, or the data center where your website data is stored were to get struck by lightning, what would happen to your website? 

This is a genuine concern that emphasizes the official recommendation that every website should have a backup. 

Backing up website data is simple. It can be done manually or automatically, and can bring your business back to life in case of physical or cyber malfunctions. 

Understanding How Backups Work 

The process of saving a copy of your website data including content, plugins, and themes, translates into creating a backup. Put simply, a backup is a concurrent snapshot of your website at any given time, and this is why it should be carried out at set intervals.

The backup process consists of two steps:

• Copying the data in its entirety 
• Saving the data in multiple places

Backing up your data protects your online assets and ensures the following:

• Safety - Website crashes may threaten your business and can occur due to server outages.  
• Security - Seeing as WordPress is an open-source platform, it can be vulnerable to hacking and malicious attacks.
• Protection - Errors and mistakes in code can often break websites or result in data loss. 
• Cash Flow - Website crashes can lead to a loss of potential transactions during downtime. 

Manual Backups 

Designed for webmasters who can work their way around back-end tasks, manual backups are the best way to safeguard your online business. 

As a business owner, you should back your site up daily or weekly depending on its size, volume, and scope of activity. A rule of thumb is to keep it consistent and regular. 

Here is how to carry out a manual backup of your WordPress site:

• Log in to the cPanel of your web host.
• Search for the backup program. 
• Download the latest backup copy of your website or web pages. 
• Save it in multiple places so as to never lose all the copies. 

Automatic Backups With Your Host 

Every web hosting plan comes with the option of free or paid automatic backups. These could be set to hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly intervals, as per your preference. To activate this feature, all you need to do is contact your web host, and they will take care of the rest. 

Take a look at the top three web host providers that offer backups:

• InMotion offers daily automated backups in addition to backup retrieval for its users. 
• Bluehost offers daily automated backups on its WordPress hosting plans. 
• Liquid Web is known for its 30-day automated backup besides 100GB backup space. 

Summing Up 

An inseparable part of site maintenance is backing it up periodically in order to avoid the total loss of your data should something go wrong. You can create backups from your hosting cPanel, or automatically with the help of your web host. You can also explore a variety of WordPress plugins that can help you backup your website with ease and efficiency.