It’s the age old suggestion with any of your electronic or digital stuff. Have you backed it up? Where did you back it up? When was the last time you backed it up? We all know we should be doing it and we all know how important it is but it isn’t until we need the backup that we realise how effective our back up strategy has been.
There are many different ways to back up a WordPress website. These include getting your host to back up your site, creating manual backups, using a tool to automate your backups or getting your web designer to do regular backups.
Why do I need to back up my WordPress website?
Your WordPress website contains all of your website information including your database. This is every post, every comment, every link, every user literally everything that you have on your website. In the worst case scenario and you are hacked or something goes wrong you could lose your entire database leaving you with absolutely nothing!
So much of this information is impossible to recreate and replicate.
When you backup your website you simply make a copy of all that information and store it somewhere else just in case you need it again. It is a precautionary measure that allows you to be able to replace and replicate any of that information if it is lost or damaged. The easiest way to think about it is as an insurance policy. You wouldn’t let your storefront sit uninsured now, would you?
If you do ever have something happen that corrupts your site then it is easily fixed by reinstalling your files from your backup. Most of the issues that arise with WordPress website are related to to out of date software, themes and plugins. Is all of this starting to sound like a hassle? Well, the easiest way to take care of all of this is with one of our maintenance plans which includes all of your maintenance and backups regularly for you.
It is not just backups that are vital for your business online. You also should be doing regular checks and updates of key software and components throughout your organisation especially to your website!
There are constantly new emerging technologies that are being exploited by people to try to gain access to your website and other technology so keeping them up to date is vital. Majority of WordPress hacks are due to outdated plugins, themes and bad password management.
If you would like to learn more about backups and maintenance plans then please get in touch with us today.