Most business owners only think about backups after something goes wrong. A good backup routine turns a disaster into a minor inconvenience.
What can go wrong
- A plugin update breaks your site
- Your site gets hacked
- Someone deletes an important page by mistake
- Your hosting company has a problem
What a good backup includes
- Your files: themes, plugins, images and uploads
- Your database: pages, posts, settings and form entries
The 3 rules of backups
- Automatic: backups should happen on a schedule, not when someone remembers.
- Off-site: keep copies outside your hosting account, like cloud storage.
- Tested: a backup you’ve never restored is a backup you can’t trust.
How often?
It depends on how often your site changes. A site that rarely changes might be fine with weekly backups. An online store with daily orders needs daily or even real-time backups. Always back up before updates.
How long to keep them
Keep several versions. Sometimes a problem isn’t noticed for a while, so having older copies to go back to is important.
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Backups are part of every maintenance plan I offer, stored safely off-site and ready to restore if anything goes wrong.
Nabil Sabdullah
Web designer & developer helping businesses turn their websites into client-generating machines. 7+ years, working remotely from the Philippines.
