The majority of new website owners don’t consider having backup systems for their website to be that important a step. But think of how devastating would it feel to have your site hacked, only to log into your laptop and find all your WordPress backup files missing in your local server folder. All that wasted energy, time and profits.
Such an incident can happen to anyone at any time, especially those that use WordPress. All the more reason to acquire a convenient backup for your files
By now, you probably know that WordPress is the most vulnerable open-source website creator when it comes to hacking. A recent example is the September 2018 hacking incident that saw thousands of WordPress sites compromised with malicious code. You can check this report here. Well, I’m not saying that the same will happen to you; however, it is always best to be armed with a convenient backup to your site in case, such a thing happens.
Other causes of data loss are;
Server Outages
Hacking is not the only act that can lead to your website’s failure or data loss. Server outages can also lead to data loss, and while most of your site’s data can be retrieved, you might lose your recent updates that had not been stored before the failure.
And just to be clear, no hosting company, even the best, can offer 100% uptime for your website. For example, RackSpace, the best hosting company in 2007 experienced a power outage that caused even prominent hosted websites to go down after a truck crashed into their electrical generators.
Human Error
Humans- even the most experienced ones- are often prone to making mistakes. Some of which can cause devastating and irreversible damage. When it comes to running websites, wrong files can be accidentally deleted, overwritten, or even wrongly updated. To cover against such nightmares, you need to have a regularly updated backup system that is easy and quick to retrieve.
Below are some of the best practices for your WordPress backup
Offsite Backup System
This is the first and most crucial backup practice every website owner should have regardless of whether your hosting company backs up your site or not.
In simple terms, an offsite backup system is an option that allows you to back up or store your website’s data to a remote server, through either a cloud backup or tape backup. A cloud backup/ online backup involves sending copies of your site’s data over a public or proprietary network to an off-site server, usually run by a third-party service provider. Examples of cloud backups are; IDrive, Acronis True Image, and SpiderOak ONE.
On the other hand, tape backup is a less common process that involves physically copying data from the primary storage to a tape cartridge for easy retrieval in case of a hard disk failure.
So, why would you need a cloud-based offsite backup system? As the name suggests, offsite backup systems store data in separate servers to your hosting company. This simply means that no matter what happens to your hosting company servers, or your local computer, you are guaranteed a ready-to-retrieve backup at any time.
Not only this, but you can also access your backup files from anywhere on any computer, as long as you have an internet connection. If you have used the Microsoft OneDrive application, you can understand how handy it has been when it comes to extracting documents in a cybercafe, or documents recovery from a damaged computer. It works the same way for your site’s data backup.
Update your backup regularly
The second backup practice that you need to get used to is regularly updating any changes you make on your website to your backup systems. So, how often should you backup your WordPress site? There is no single answer to this question. Different factors have to be considered before making the final decision.
Nevertheless, here are some of the questions you should answer when deciding the frequency of backing up your data. How often do you upload new content? How much storage does your hosting company or backup system support? To what extent can your website or business be affected in case of a data loss? And finally, are there regulations for storing sensitive data, whether local or national?
The answers to these questions can help you gauge how often you should back up your files. But if you still find yourself not sure, I would recommend you do nightly backups, followed by extra backups before conducting critical updates. You can schedule these backups to be automatic using WordPress plugins just to make the process easier.
Test your backups ability to restore regularly
There would be no need to have a backup system if the backup itself doesn’t work. You would lose the data anyway. Just like any other backup system, it is always advisable you keep on checking if the backup restore functionality of your site is working.
Needless to say, do not try doing this on your live website. You might end up crashing your website. Alternatively, there are numerous options that you can use such as setting up a second WordPress trial site, or using staging servers if you are using a managed WordPress service such as WPEngine.
Final Words
The list of best WordPress backup practices is endless. The ones we have mentioned are just the basic ones and the must-haves; especially the offsite backup plans. You should never miss this.