The Importance of Website Backups

So, you’ve decided to start your own website.

Running a website can be a pretty fun and rewarding journey, and creating one from scratch is as easy as counting one, two, three…

Today, you can have a site up and running in no time with the help of a site builder.

For example, if you’re building a site with WordPress, you can use Elementor, as it is one of the leading WordPress website builder available on the market.

But starting one and keeping it running is a different matter.

What if your website runs into a problem? 

After all, you don’t want your visitors to be stuck on an error screen, do you?

Website backups can come in pretty handy in such cases.

In this blog post, we will see what website backups are and why they are so important.

What is a Website Backup?

A website backup is basically a copy of all the content on your website.

In simple words, it’s a safety net.

If something goes wrong with your site, you do not have to worry about building it up from scratch.

This backup can also come in handy when you’re moving your site to a new host.

But Why are Website Backups So Important?

You know, we often hear about many cyberattacks happening all the time and the ensuing data loss is huge.

This is a pretty common thing to happen in the online world.

And it’s not just big sites that fall victim to these attacks and threats, small sites and blogs get hacked all the time.

These attacks can easily make your sites go down, or you can lose them entirely.

Data backups make sure that you can get it up and running again without having to build a new site from the beginning.

Here are some reasons why you need data backups in your life:

Well, there is no website out there that is completely immune to cyberattacks and hackers.

Your website can easily get infected with malware and viruses, or you just might have an easy password.

But still, regardless of how these hackers get into your site, you need to have a backup ready for those just-in-case moments.

With a backup, you can restore your site to a clean and malware-free version without much work.

DID YOU KNOW?
There are about 2,200 cyberattacks per day, which means that more than 800,000 people are being hacked per year.

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems in the world, and more than 43% of websites use it.

This is because of the many options for customizability and functionality it gives to site owners. 

But this functionality is kind of like a double-edged sword.

WordPress sites need to be updated constantly, and this can include themes and plugins.

Sometimes these plugins have bugs that may cause compatibility issues and break your site.

Backups allow you to roll back the changes until you can fix the things that the update broke or replace the plugin entirely.

If you’re moving your website from one host to another, having a complete backup can help.

You can easily just transfer the latest backup of your site to another server with all the data intact.

When you’re new to websites, you do not know about a lot of stuff.

So, if you’re like most programmers, you build and destroy your sites multiple times before settling on a design.

Having a backup in such cases would mean that you do not have to write all the content on your test sites from scratch.

Just import from your backups and you’re done.

It can act as a testing ground or a sandbox where you can test all your ideas and designs before you officially deploy the site.

How Do You Backup a WordPress Website?

If you want to create a backup of a WordPress website, it is a very easy process, and you can do it in any of the three ways.

WordPress has an option that allows you to create backups of all the content, including posts and pages, in the form of an XML file.

This type of backup is pretty handy if you are in the testing phase and want a quick way to populate your site.

All you need to do is access the Tools section in your WordPress sidebar and choose the Export option.

Well, if you want to create a backup of more than just content, then plugins or an online backup service are for you.

These services allow you to clone your site settings, CSS, and other files into the backups.

Plus, these services and plugins can create a backup of your site automatically.

Did you know that your hosting service also comes with a feature that allows you to create backups of your site?

It’s usually available with more premium versions, and you can even pay a bit every month to have them create backups automatically.

They typically come with three levels of backups daily, weekly, and monthly.

Conclusion

The idea of creating backups of your website might seem like a lot of work but it can protect your site from unexpected downtimes.

No matter what kind of site you run, hackers, malware, or plugin glitches, there are a number of things that can take down your site and your audience won’t wait for you.

Backups can act as a safety net for all those downtimes.

There are just so many upsides to creating backups, you can even use them to move your site from one hosting to another.

Besides, creating them is as easy as just a couple of clicks.

You can create backups from WordPress itself, use a plugin, or have your hosting create one for you automatically and on schedule.

---