Always Have a Backup Plan

Step 4 from the 7 Day Sequence: 7 Easy Steps to Secure Your Website

So we have arrived at the fourth step from the security week in our SuperBlog. We are three steps closer to a more secure web presence so let’s make our next move! After reminding you to always update your available systems, plugins and themes while focusing on the importance of backups, today we are going to talk about backup and recovery options.

Many people underestimate the importance of a recent website backup. Very often the existence of a backup has been of key importance for “saving the life” of a certain website, even for our customers’ business. The backup is a plan B which can save you in times of difficulties. In the following lines we are going to tell you how easy it is to have a plan B…

When do we need a backup?

Some of the most common situations might be:

• Unintentionally deleted/modified data (files or parts of them, database, unintentional modification/deletion on the website).
• Updates of systems/themes or plugins leading to improper operation of the website.
• Malicious breach and infected files/database.

The lack of a recent backup may have a negative impact in each of the above mentioned cases.

Do not forget that backing up is an integral part of the managed hosting services. If you choose VPS or dedicated server for your projects, pay attention to the additional backup solutions that can be provided.

How often we should back up?

It is important not only to have a backup, but to have a recent one. If your website’s latest backup dates a year ago, it probably will not help you much in times of need.

Depending on the website, the intensity of changing data and the importance of loss of information, we should decide how often to do backup.

If your website is a static blog which is updated a few times per year, performing backup once a few months is enough.

If your website is an interactive system or a store where data changes every minute you should perform daily backup.

How to generate backup?

There are different ways to generate backup depending on your system features.

Here are some of the most common ways:

1. Generating backup through cPanel – This is probably the easiest way to quickly create a copy of your website containing its files and databases.
2. Copying files and databases manually – If you do not have the opportunity to generate backup through cPanel, you can perform it manually. The full backup should include the website’s files and database if it has such one. You can also copy the files via FTP. Moreover, you can copy databases via phpMyAdmin.

Where to store backups?

You should store backups in a location other than the account where your website is hosted.

This way you will make sure that your backups will not be affected if something happens to the account.

We recommend storing backups locally on your computer or on a separate cloud service (pCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).