WordPress Essentials: regular automated backups of your website

backup-ease

Take it from experience… Creating backups of your WordPress website is absolutely essential.

Just last week, a client reported that his website had been hacked… just a week after we had completed the website’s redesign! The hosting service had an archived backup from 2 weeks earlier. But it was missing the key updates that we had made.

So what did we do?

Luckily, I use a plugin, called BackupBuddy, to save a backup at the completion of each client project.

I save archives of my client’s backup for about 6 months, so I can always refer back to them if needed. In this case, I was able to retrieve the client’s entire website from my backup. I brought the lost website completely back to life.

Crisis averted!

There are 3 key times that I create backups…

  • Backup manually before upgrading. Always save a backup before upgrading  Wordpress or the theme framework, or any major plugins. You never know when something may break!
  • Backup manually at intervals during a website redesign. In addition to backing up at the end of each project, I often save backups from the start and middle points of the project. It’s helpful to have the files available.
  • Backup automatically each week and month. For clients, I setup automated functions to backup the database each week and the full website each month. This schedule can be customized to fit different needs.

I use the premium BackupBuddy plugin for all of these functions.

The price is well worth the peace of mind. Try it out, and let me know what you think!

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What about you? Do you have a crisis story about a website that desperately needed a backup? Have you used the BackupBuddy plugin? I know it’s such a simple and huge benefit for my clients!
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