How to Back Up Your WordPress Site

Having a WordPress website is an important part of your business, especially if most of your work comes to you online. Although web hosting services have greatly improved their uptime and system redundancy, there are situations where your website can crash. Sometimes, the files for your site can even be lost due to a serious system failure. That is why you should always back up your WordPress site.

Having a backup file for your website lets you quickly restore your website to full functionality, even if all of the files are removed from the server. You should always have a copy so you can restore it yourself and ensure that you can start your website again. Thanks to WordPress and web hosts like SirsteveHQ, this process is much easier.

Regular backups ensure the ability to restore a website to a previous state, preserving valuable content, customizations, and configurations, providing peace of mind and minimizing downtime in case of emergencies.

Here is how to back up your WordPress site.

What is a WordPress website backup?

A backup is a copy of the files needed for your website. This includes the core files for WordPress, any plugins or additions you made to the site, and a copy of the database that it uses to store information. In essence, it is a snapshot of your website that you can use to restore it if something happens to the files on the server.

This is critical for WordPress, especially if you have an online store on WooCommerce. WordPress stores all of its data (posts, page content, pictures, user accounts, etc.) in a central database. If this database is changed in the wrong way or deleted, your website will break. If you have a backup of your site, you can restore the damaged parts or replace everything to get your site back online right away.

You should back up your website regularly. Most people try to do it once per month. However, sites with higher traffic should do it more often. If you have an online store, you should try to back it up at least once per week. That way, you won’t lose track of new user accounts, shopping carts, or sales data.

Full backup vs partial backup

There are two main types of WordPress website backups, a full site backup and a partial website backup.

Full Backups: Full backups include all the files and data associated with your WordPress site, such as themes, plugins, media uploads, and the database. This type of backup allows for a complete restoration of the entire site.

Partial Backups: Partial backups focus on specific elements of your WordPress site. This can involve backing up only the database, which contains essential data like posts, pages, comments, and settings. Alternatively, you can choose to back up only the files, which include themes, plugins, and media uploads. Partial backups are useful when you want to restore specific components of your site without affecting the rest.

Tools you can use for automatic backups

There are many tools you can use to back up your WordPress website. Check with your current hosting provider to see if they offer a backup service. For example, SirsteveHQ provides managed WordPress hosting and automatically creates backup files regularly so that you don’t have to.

If you run a standalone WordPress site, you can install a WordPress plugin to make the process easier. There are backup options using plugins that can make the file and download it for you to your computer or you can choose to upload your backup to cloud storage. It is a much easier and faster process than doing it manually. Plugins should also work on hosted sites if you prefer not to use tools provided by the host.

Your web host should have a method to let you backup your data manually. If your host uses cPanel as its dashboard, then this feature exists. You will have to go to the two programs that WordPress uses, called PHPMyAdmin and MySQL (there are other options, but these are the most common), and download the database and the rest of the files manually. This is only recommended if you are used to working in the backend of web hosting platforms or if you have no other options. 

Before you begin

Before you begin this process, decide which method works best for you. Check with your host to see if there is an existing backup file and if you can download it. Also, you need a place to store the backup files. You can download it straight to your computer. However, businesses may want to have an external hard drive to save backup files to. You also want to keep at least the three most recent copies of the backup, so that you have multiple options for restoring your website.

Ways to backup your WordPress website

There are several ways to back up your WordPress website. Here is how you can do it.

Manual WordPress backup

Remember, this is a process for people who have some experience working on website backends. If you are unsure of any of these steps, stop and ask your host for help.

To do a manual backup, start by logging into your hosting platform. This is not the WordPress site that your website sits on, but the administrative system that your web host has. Once you are logged in, look for a backup program in the list of available tools. If your host has one, you can use it to download the latest backup file. If you don’t see one, then look for a program like PHPMyAdmin and MySQL. Usually, they will have the words “PHP” or “SQL” in the title. Open each one separately and download the files there.

Alternatively, you can use an FTP manager to access the website files you need. FileZilla is a common option. You will need the FTP information for your site, which is in the hosting platform. Once you can give FileZilla FTP access to your site, download everything that is in the main file for your web host. Make sure you don’t delete anything.

Some Plugins Can Back Up WordPress Regularly

If you are going to use the plugin, then use the plugin installer in WordPress on the plugins tab. It will take you to the plugin store, where you can search for and download the plugin. Much of the process is automatic, so it will be quick and easy. Once you have the plugin installed, activate it and follow the instructions from the manufacturer. It will usually be as simple as pushing the backup button in the plugin’s interface.

The following plugins can be used for automatic backups:

• UpdraftPlus – uploads files to the cloud via Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Onedrive & more. There’s a free version for you to try it out.
• BackupBuddy – schedule daily, weekly, or monthly backups to the cloud.
• Vaultpress (now part of jetpack) – they don’t offer a free version. There is only a monthly and yearly plan.
• BlogVault – although on the “pricier” side, this is a reliable backup solution for WordPress sites. They also provide a lot of features for the price.
• BackupWPUp – has a few packages for different websites and different needs. It’s also on the cheaper side compared to other option.

If you ever need to utilize your backup file, there is a backup restore feature.

Automatic backup from your hosting provider

Similar to doing a manual backup, log into your hosting account. Look for the tool that your host has for automatic backups. When you open it, it should give you the option to download the backup files. If you have any questions, reach out to your host for assistance.

Conclusion

It is important to back up your WordPress website regularly. Thankfully, WordPress and hosts like SirsteveHQ make it much easier to do so. Make sure you keep several copies of your latest backup files so that you can recover in case of a problem.