Creating your first WordPress website can be both fun and exciting. However, it is also a lot of work, especially if you are building a site which is based on content. If your website is content-based, you will find that you are constantly adding new material, which is stored on the servers of your website host.
Unfortunately, not all hosting providers are reliable, particularly if they are cheap or have a poor reputation. This means that there is a chance that your website – and the entirety of its content – could be lost if your hosts servers crash or if your database is corrupted for some reason.
For this single reason, backing up your WordPress website – usually using a third party plugin – is an extremely important part of your overall WordPress maintenance program. Although it can seem difficult at first, this walk through should help you learn how to backup and restore your WordPress site in case something goes wrong.
What Does It Mean To Backup A Website?
A website backup is basically a copy of your website (known as your files) which is stored in a different place to the rest of your website (usually in some sort of database). This means that if your normal servers go down for some reason, you will still have a copy of your content to fall back on.
A decent backup includes everything on your website, including things like your themes, plugins, any images or videos, and any written content that you have. When you are using a backup, you will never have to worry about losing anything from your website.
How Do I Backup My Website?
Once you have decided to backup your website, you will need to find a decent plugin which supports backups. Different plugins are better suited to different people, but they all have their pros and cons. Consider the following when choosing a backup plugin for your website:
- The price – The cost of premium plugins is a major consideration for many small website owners, as they often can’t afford to pay monthly subscriptions for major premium plugins.
- How they backup your files – Different backup plugins work differently. Some store your data on a seperate server, while others send it to your hard drive, your email, or to some other place that you tell it to.
- How often then automatically backup – If you regularly create new content, then you will need to find a plugin which regularly backs up your data, otherwise you risk losing new content.
How Do I Restore My Website After A Backup?
If your website does crash and you lose everything for some reason, you will need to restore your site. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on the plugin that you decide to use. The best thing to do here is to do some research and make sure that you understand how your chosen plugin works, and to make sure that you have everything necessary for a backup if it is ever necessary.
Good luck, and hopefully you never have to worry about restoring your website!