You’ve just launched an amazing new website for your company. You’ve used the latest technologies, optimized your content and SEO, and it’s dynamic and lightning fast. The new site is getting rave reviews from colleagues and clients alike. Your job is done.
But wait – what about backups? Is your content getting backed up on a regular basis in case of a technology failure, or worse – a security breach such as a malware attack? Can the site be restored quickly in the event of a failure, and if so, how much data will be lost? How long will a site restoration take to complete? Where are the backups stored, and who can access them? What if you receive a ransomware threat about your site, or see signs of a malware attack? These are all questions that need to be considered if you want to maintain your website in the best possible manner.
What is a backup?
A backup of your website is simply a copy of all of the files, databases, and configuration files that make up your website. All of the images, theme files, plugins, and text in use on the site is compressed into a zipped file and is stored either “on site” – on the same server that hosts the website – or “off site” – which means the backup file gets transferred to another physical server location or to a cloud-based file storage.
How often should my website be backed up?
There is no one correct answer to this question – it really does depend on several factors. If your site is a static site, just HTML and CSS files and no CMS like WordPress or Joomla, a weekly or less frequent backup of the files may suffice. For a very simple website that is just a few pages of static content, you may be able to create a backup once and then simply update that backup file anytime content is updated. In reality, most modern websites are updated frequently to engage visitors, so a backup plan is a must-have.
If your website uses a CMS, you’ll likely want to take a daily backup of the full site, and then possibly separate backups of only the database less often. If you have an ecommerce site, you may want more frequent backups taken incrementally, possibly every 6 or 12 hours if your site is very active to capture any recent changes such as new orders. It’s also a good idea to run a backup prior to updating WordPress or any plugins on a site, as plugin updates may cause a site to break. Having a rollback point is a good insurance policy during any website maintenance.
What is an incremental or differential backup compared to a full backup?
An incremental backup will look at the last full backup and then back up only files that have changed since that last full or incremental backup. A differential backup is similar, but it includes all changes since the last full backup. The method of backup frequency, as well as the size of your website, will determine how much storage space will be necessary to store your backup files. Which is right for your site? Again, it depends on many factors. Your website hosting company can help you determine what setup is best for your particular website. You are welcome to contact our support desk if you have any questions regarding website backups.
How do I set up my website backups?
Each web hosting company will typically offer a backup solution of some sort. This might be an automatic daily backup of the site, usually on the same server that hosts the site. If this is a free storage inclusion to your hosting plan, definitely take advantage of this option. You are also able to set up your own backups and store them on a PC, in a OneDrive or Google drive or Dropbox account, or on some other portable storage media, and it is recommended that you have both an onsite backup as well as other offsite backup options active.
Manual backups are also a possibility for site restore purposes. If you are migrating a site to a new server, for example, you might want to run a manual backup just before the migration, as a precaution, and store it temporarily on your local hard drive. Because manual backups require time and attention, and it can be more difficult to restore a site from a manual backup, your main website backup plan should always include automatic, scheduled backups.
As an example, if you’re hosting your WordPress site with GoDaddy and your managed hosting plan includes a daily backup and storage allotment, you might then use a separate plugin to add additional offsite backups for your site. Some reliable backup plugins include Updraft Plus, BackWPup, or Blogvault. All are very different in their setup but the end result is a full backup of your website somewhere other than your hosting server. Some plugins, such as SolidWP, allow you to back up your database separately from other files. Some services, such as Blogvault or Manage WP, will provide a control panel for your site so you can perform safe updates of plugins, create a staging site for testing plugin updates, or easily roll back your site to a prior checkpoint.
Most of the plugins offer a way to send the backup automatically to a storage server or cloud server, including Dropbox, Amazon cloud servers, OneDrive, Google Drive, or some other storage type. They will usually employ FTP/SFTP connections to the storage server. Often there is a monthly fee associated with this type of backup service.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss how many website backups should be retained and how to implement an effective website backup policy.
