Site Backups

There are a variety of different methods to back up a WordPress site, and each one depends on the activity of the site and convenience. Regardless of which method is chosen, a website must be backed up on a regular basis. This could be daily for a busy site, weekly for a moderately updated site, and monthly for a ‘static’ site. There are a few ways of doing this, and, again, the decision would be down to a businesses resources and technical ability in making that decision.

Backup Methods

FTP: You can use an FTP client like FileZilla to connect to a website server and manually download the contents of the site. This method backs up only the site content and not the database, so another method will have to be found to complete that task. It works, but it’s not pretty!
cPanel: This is the hosting provider’s control panel for a website. Here you can access and download (separately) the site contents and, via phpMyAdmin, the site database. These are then stored locally and can be restored if necessary. cPanel also has a Backup facility, which the hosting provider sometimes charge for. This will back up everything and if something goes wrong you can contact your hosting provider, and they can recover and reinstall the files.
phpMyAdmin: It’s technical but accessing this area of the cPanel you will be able to download a ZIP copy of your database, store it locally, and restore it if necessary.
Plugin: Plugins are probably the best way forward. They can be installed and configured to back up a site and database on a scheduled basis. The plugin can be configured to house the backup either locally (via FTP) or on a cloud storage (a Google Drive or Dropbox, for example). The plugin method is very convenient in that once configured, it more or less looks after itself. It’s advisable to run the backup when traffic is low, as the process of backing up a site can draw resources from the site/server.

Restoration

Something that should be planned for is the restoration of a site. Access to the backup files is critical, so business owners should know where they’re stored. It may seem obvious, but the backup method and storage facility should be documented. Restoration of a site can be a timely process, so a plan should be drawn up in the eventuality of a site being inoperable for a few hours. How will customers interact with the business? You should have, in advance, a ‘maintenance page’ at the ready. Website visitors will see this static page instead of the whole site. The page would have all the contact names and numbers or alternative methods of communicating with the business.

Site Backups - What we can do

Create an initial backup to be stored locally.

Configure a plugin to create regular backups, span depends on the regularity of website updates.

Create a Dropbox space to hold these off-site.

Set up site ‘uptime’ software will poll the site every few minutes and report any outages

Restore the site if necessary.

See how we can Help

Use the contact form and tell us what you require. Critical Updates which include Core, Plugin, and Theme Updates and a Weekly Backup start from €60 (inc. Vat)

Backup Methods

Restoration

Site Backups - What we can do

See how we can Help

Takeaway

About Site Backups