The importance of backups
If you have a WordPress website, it is also important to maintain your website regularly. Making backups is an important part of that. Something can always go wrong while updating your website, a wrong installation or due to problems with your hosting provider. At such times you are very happy if you have recently made a backup and therefore have little to no data loss.
WordPress files and database
Backing up isn’t complicated. Just remember that the process consists of two parts. This way you can make a backup of your WordPress files on the one hand and make a backup of your WordPress database on the other. This is not the same! WordPress files include WordPress installation files, plugin and theme files, Javascript and PHP scripts. The database contains all the content that you have placed on the pages.
Misunderstandings about backups
There are several reasons why people don’t back up. Sometimes it’s ignorance, sometimes it’s laziness, but there are also many assumptions that lead to misunderstandings. For example, there are situations in which people assume that the hosting party or the web developer will provide backups. That is often the case, but that does not mean that you always have access to these backups. So make good agreements about this or take out a maintenance subscription!
There are also people who think that they will never be hacked or that the updates of the themes and plugins will always go well. Unfortunately, that is not a given and you should always take into account the fact that something can happen to your WordPress website. Cleaning up a hacked website or conflicts between plugins can change the entire layout of your website. Instead of manually adjusting everything again, you are happy if you can restore a backup in no time.
Regular updates
We can already hear you asking: how often should you back up your website? That actually depends on your website and its use. If you regularly make adjustments or use complicated plug-ins, it is wise to make backups more often. But in general, you can take into account daily updating your database and updating your files weekly. If you do not change anything about your website on a daily basis, just update your database on a weekly basis.
Save backups
In addition to making regular updates, we also recommend that you save the backups in multiple locations. Excessive? Maybe… but if you are already working on it, you better be on the safe side, right? It will happen to you that you always neatly make your backups, save them to your computer and then your computer crashes. Still everything gone! An external hard drive or the cloud is your best friend. Plus, it’s helpful to keep your backups for a while. Of course, this does not have to be done for months, because if all goes well you do regular updates, but problems in your WordPress website you usually do not notice immediately. For a clean backup, you have to go back in time.
Professional backup plan
We can well imagine that you get the jitters of this story. Making daily backups and also at different locations… It is indeed not a job that you have done in five minutes. But it is possible to maintain the entire process of your website, and therefore also to outsource regular updates!
By default, we make a backup before we perform an update. In addition, based on the amount of activity on your website, you can choose the frequency of updates yourself. For example, we can make backups for you per 24 hours, per 12 hours, per 6 hours or even per hour. This way you do not have to worry about your website and always have the certainty that you can go back!
