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WordPress Backup and Restore Best Practices: How to Protect Your Website from Unexpected Downtime

by Casey Crane on March 24, 2020

We’ll break down some of the backup and restoration methods for your
WordPress site that can help you recover from the schmucks of the digital world

It’s never just a matter of if but rather when
something goes wrong with your WordPress website. That’s not a dig against
WordPress, it’s just the reality of running websites. Getting your site back up
and running is not just time consuming but it’s also expensive. Of course, the
fastest way to fix any issues and to get it back up and running is to use a
WordPress backup and restore solution.

Regardless of why your site is down — whether a hacker
decided to compromise your website or something happened to your servers — if
you have a WordPress backup and restore solution in place, this snafu won’t cause
much of an issue. Just restore your website right away, and you can get things
back up and running pretty quickly.

But what if you’re one of those who never took the time to
make a WordPress backup? Then you, my friend, are traveling up an infamous brown
creek without a paddle.

So, if you’re wondering “what is a WordPress backup and do I
really need it?” we’ll answer that and share some solutions, tips, and best
practices that can help you to protect the future of your organization and
website.

Let’s hash it out.

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WordPress Backup and Restore: The Basics

Without trying to sound overly negative or critical,
something is always going to go wrong at one point or another. Whether it’s a cyber
attack, a server failure, or an electrical overload, data can get destroyed in
any number of ways. And having a WordPress backup and restoration tool (or web
hosting backup or database backup for those of you who use web hosting
solutions other than WordPress) in place can help you restore your website
quickly and easily when it does.

That’s because a website backup, in a nutshell, is like a snapshot
in time of your website’s most essential components — your databases, files,
etc. This is true of any website, including WordPress sites. And I’m sure that
you’d agree that all of those things are worth protecting.

Some WordPress backup best practices we can share include:

Backing up site code files, databases, and images
and other media.
Backing up any plugins, add-ons, and templates
or themes.
Ensuring your WordPress backup is recent
and up to date.
Using a solution that makes backup and
restoration tasks easy.
Using off-site storage, preferably cloud storage.
Encrypting and protecting your onsite and cloud backup
storage.

A WordPress backup and restore tool is what you’d use to replace
your database, files, and other pertinent information in the event that
something goes wrong. And, as Murphy’s Law would indicate, “whatever can go
wrong, will go wrong.”

It’s like keeping an insurance policy on your business: While it may not stop bad things from happening, a reliable WordPress backup and restore plan helps you to ensure that you get back on your feet when they do. It’s also like having a handy save point in a video game — this way, you don’t have to start all the way back at the beginning!

Why Do I Need to Worry About Having WordPress Backup and Restore
Capabilities?

Did you know that 59% of survey respondents report human error as the leading cause of unplanned downtime? That data is according to research from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting’s (ITIC) 2019 Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Survey of 1,000 global businesses between October 2018 and January 2019.

According to the survey: “Human error (59%) and security
(51%) are the top external causes of downtime and unanticipated reasons for
taking servers offline.”

Other causes include:

Software bugs and flaws (29%)
Inadequate server hardware (22%), and
Challenges in provisioning new applications
(21%)

Unfortunately, downtime is a costly problem for organizations of all sizes, including enterprises. Statista reports that downtime from critical server outages cost 34% of enterprises at least $1 million per hour on average according to its 2019 survey data. Another 25% of respondents globally reported an average hourly downtime cost of between $301,000 and $400,000.

When something goes wrong, 99% of the time restoring from a
backup (or at minimum have a backup to compare file differences) is going to be
the fastest (and easiest) way to fix the problem. So, if you value keeping your
website up and running, I’d suggest implementing a WordPress backup of some
kind immediately.

Methods of Backing Up Your WordPress Website

If you’re someone who likes options, then you’ll feel right
at home when it comes to choosing a WordPress backup and restore solution for
your organization. That’s because WordPress website backup tools typically fall
within a few basic categories — and we’ll talk about the pros and cons of each:

Manual Backups

Some people may opt to use manual backup methods for their
WordPress websites (you know, because they’re just gluttons for punishment). There
are a few different ways you can manually backup your WordPress site,
including:

Log in to your WordPress admin area to back up your
site database and files.
Use FTP to download your files and phpMyAdmin,
an open source software, to back up your MySQL database.
Use the control panel (e.g. cPanel) through your
web hosting provider and manually create backups there.

But remembering to do that as frequently as you should for
regular website backups is, frankly, a real hassle. And, if you’re like me and
you must continuously set reminders for yourself to ensure you don’t forget to
do something important, then a manual backup might not be for you. This is why
many people opt for using automatic backup options instead.

Advantages of Manual Backups

You have the ability to back up your website,
databases, and files whenever you want.
You have full control (and responsibility) over
your website and database backup tasks.
There’s no cost — you can use the tools you’re
already using.

Drawbacks of Manual Backups

It’s not a time-efficient method for regularly backing
up files and databases.
You need to know the processes for successfully
performing the backups and restorations.
You may accidentally miss one (or more) backups,
resulting in downtime costs and issues.
May be less secure than automatic backups (after
all, someone must manually back up everything and secure the backups).

Automatic Backup Services

We can’t emphasize enough the importance of running
automatic backups. What if you miss a day? Or, worse, a week of backups?
With an automatic website backup solution, you’ll never again have to worry
about missing a day again. It’ll automatically schedule and execute the backup task
for you to ensure your website always has a backup available. What’s even
better is that most automatic backup services connect to your website via FTP
and/or SSH, so you won’t need to install anything on your server.

Advantages of Automatic Backups

Ensure you never miss a day (let alone a week)
of backups.
You can “set it and forget it” with regard to
scheduling backups at regular intervals.
Saves you on time and labor costs of backing up
your site and databases.
Automatic backup tools often save to the cloud,
which provides you with a secondary backup for your local storage.

Disadvantages of Automatic Backups

If you make major changes to your site, they
won’t be recorded until the next scheduled backup.
This backup method may fail if improperly
configured or your credentials change (but you should get an email notification
so you can fix this).

Meet CodeGuard

At Hashed Out, we don’t really like to hawk our wares and push products to our readers. We take pride in simply being able to share our knowledge with you on a variety of subject matter. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention CodeGuard. This solution automatically backs up your website files and database daily without you ever having to lift a finger.

Accidentally made the wrong change or deleted a file? No
worries. CodeGuard offers a one-click restore option that allows you to revert
your site to a previous version to get it back into working order.

Worried that your backups are stored in the same location as all of the rest of your files? This isn’t an issue with CodeGuard — it stores your backups on an Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System (AWS S3).

Made a bunch of major changes to your site and want to make
sure they aren’t lost if something goes wrong? You can choose to perform a
manual backup, too, right then and there.

As an additional bonus, CodeGuard also:

monitors your website for changes or instances
of malware,
alerts you of any issues or changes to your
site,
updates your plugins automatically,
offers email backup capabilities, and
makes website migrations easy.

Shop Now for CodeGuard

WordPress Backup and Restore Plugins

Some people choose to back up their website using a website
plugin. Since most WordPress users are familiar with WP Admin, adding a backup
feature there is most comfortable for them. (Note: with CodeGuard, you can
choose from using FTP or the WordPress plugin to create your database and
website backups.)

Other plugins listed on WordPress.org include:

UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
BackWPup — WordPress Backup Plugin
Jetpack by WordPress.com
Migrate & Backup WordPress — WPvivid Backup
Plugin

Advantages of Using WordPress Backup Plugin:

Adds backup functionality to the WordPress Admin
panel you’re already using.
Some plugins have scheduling capabilities.
Many WordPress backup plugins are free or low
cost.

Disadvantages of Using a WordPress Backup Plugin:

Many plugin backups aren’t stored off-site
(unless you connect or purchase a cloud storage account).
A hacker or disgruntled employee who gains
access to your site can delete your backups, too.
Many web hosts block backup plugins because they
can place a large load on the web server (an external service connecting to
your site via FTP will put a much smaller load on your server).

Best Practices for Restoring Your WordPress Site

Now, we know that you’ve got an important decision to make.
Regardless of whichever backup method you choose, here are a few quick
WordPress Site restoration tips to keep in mind:

Backup your current site files and databases
before performing a restore (or an upgrade)
When in doubt, compare your databases first to
ensure you don’t lose the most recent information — this is especially critical
for ecommerce and other websites that accept real-time user submissions
Always keep at least three backups available (in
different locations and formats) for ease of use and to ensure if one backup
fails, you can rely on another

Final Thoughts on Choosing a WordPress Backup Solution

When you back up your WordPress site or database, you create
a safety net for your website, database, or digital files. As such, it’s essential
that you not only choose the tools and methods, but that you also follow some industry
best practices as well.

Weigh the benefits and costs of each backup method and tool
to ensure you’re choosing the right one for your organization. Rather than resorting
to storing the backups of your digital files in just one location (depending on
the method you choose), you have the option of keeping them safe and readily
available through a trusted cloud backup solutions provider.