You can do several things to make your website secure, from selecting a reputable web host to using strong passwords. The most important step you can take is to do website backups – early and regularly. You may benefit from having a current website backup in various ways. If you lose important data or your website is hacked, having a backup on hand might fix your issues. Also, creating that backup file usually doesn’t take longer than a few minutes. We’ll go through 5 reasons you should immediately back up your website in this article. Let’s start reading.
Table of Contents
What Is a Website Backup Service?
All of the data on your website is copied during a website backup. Your online backup provider will determine what the backup storage includes. The more data that is contained in the data backup, generally speaking, the better.
This is particularly true if a content management system like WordPress hosts your website since you’ll need your site’s files, content, images, and databases to restore it to full functionality.
How Frequently Should You Back Up Your Website?
Website backups, like PC backups, should be performed regularly. Backups should be performed daily, weekly, or as frequently as your website updates. For example, weekly backups are enough if you update your website once each week and publish one blog post.
Reasons Why You Need Website Backup
Following are the important reasons why should you need to backup up the websites:
Avoid Human Error
Everyone makes errors from time to time. Change your website in a way that affects part of its functionality or delete an important file. These issues may be fixed, but from our experience, few solutions are as effective as restoring a previous backup.
Consider the following scenario: a big portion of your website stops working. These are your two choices:
- Determine the issue and try to find a solution.
- Restore the most recent backup of your website, then continue.
Depending on the problem’s seriousness, the first option can be quick or time-consuming. However, you can rapidly launch your site using the second strategy. All you need is a recent enough backup to ensure that no important data is lost. The main message is that backups can save you if you or someone else makes a mistake on your website. Make such backups frequently, if not daily, to be as safe as possible.
Fix Problems During Updates
Your website needs regular updates to remain active. Many developers will inform you that updates often cause issues. Updates are necessary, but they also have the potential to go wrong. This does not mean that you should avoid updates, though. The opposite is true. They need to be carried out with suitable caution. Before making changes, make sure your website is completely backed up so you are completely protected.
Read: Top 7 WordPress Backup Plugins In 2023
Avoid Losing Important Data
Imagine you have a blog with hundreds of posts, and one (or more) of them were accidentally deleted by a team member. Because they lacked knowledge or allowed specific persons excessive access, people have previously deleted entire libraries of content. Maintaining a backup system will ensure that your data remains secure even in scenarios like the one above. That means you must have a complete backup of your website, and your data must also be backed up.
Furthermore, data loss can happen even in the absence of human mistakes. That means having backups is important, even if you and your staff are experienced. If you’re concerned about losing important data, we recommend going one step further. You should not only have several backup copies on hand, but you should also avoid keeping them all in the same place. We recommend uploading your most recent backups to the cloud and keeping a duplicate on your server for backup.
Handle Compatibility Issues After New Installations
If you use a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress or another, you probably rely heavily on add-ons like themes and plugins. Both kinds of tools can be quite useful. However, each time you install a new add-on, you’re introducing a new aspect that can compete with the rest of the site’s ecosystem.
This doesn’t mean you should avoid plugins and themes, just like you shouldn’t ignore updates. Instead, you should proceed cautiously while choosing the ones you download. Verify their ratings and reviews and how frequently the developers update them. To be safe, you should back up your website before activating a new theme or WordPress plugin. With this strategy, you must go back to an earlier backup to fix a compatibility problem. You are then free to install a different tool.
Malware Removal
Many individuals believe that malware can only be found on personal computers. However, a surprising amount of websites are compromised with malware, and many more are vulnerable to it.
Attackers still have access to highly powerful tools even if you take proactive measures to secure your website. Remember that even smaller, less well-known websites are not protected from attacks. Users of WordPress, for example, frequently encounter attacks from bots searching for weaknesses they may exploit. Troubleshooting malware might be especially difficult because it’s difficult to tell whether your site is completely clear. You’ll still be at risk if you don’t find and fix the security “hole” that allowed the infection. Cleaning up your website more quickly will be made possible by having a backup available.
Conclusion
As we’ve already explained, you may back up your website in various ways. Some web hosting providers will take care of it for you, while others let you make backups whenever you need them from your control panel. You can use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to copy your files if you prefer a more manual method, or you can set up a backup plugin.
Whatever method you choose, as long as you have several backups and regularly create them, is acceptable. We advise maintaining multiple duplicate backups in several locations for maximum security. In this manner, you’ll always have a backup of your backup if you lose one. You can be as safe as possible there.
If you use Temok, you’re in good hands! Every day, we automatically back up your website for you. Also, a recent update allows you to make backups using your control panel whenever you want. You can also easily restore your backups if you encounter any of the conditions discussed in this post.
Do you have any questions on how to perform website backups? Please become a member of the Temok community today, and let’s talk!