Scheduling backups in WordPress is very easy, but completely ignored by most website and blog owners.
As a consequence, many lose recent content or need to go back to very old versions, never again having access to materials that were produced or to essential reports, in the case of online stores.
Without a backup, there is a real risk of losing comments, reviews, posts, products and information stored in the WordPress database.
Fortunately, we wrote this complete manual to help you. In it, you will see:
- Good practices for using backup copies;
- How to create scheduled backups in WordPress ;
- Useful plugins that automate almost all the steps needed to save your website offline.
All you need to do is continue reading this article and write your questions in the comments, if you have them, of course. That said, let’s get to the content.
What is a backup?
A backup is a backup copy of all the files that make up a website . It’s like a “spare key for your vehicle”, which is always kept ready to perform its function in case a problem happens.
When it comes to WordPress, a backup is made up of the website files + the database elements , both saved in a separate location, to be used if necessary.
Why is it so important to have an automatic backup in WordPress?
Because there is always a chance of something unexpected happening to your website and having a backup is the best way to be prepared in these situations, avoiding bigger problems.
The (short) life of a website without a backup
To get an idea of how important a backup is, imagine a fully functioning online store. One day, some specific plugin breaks the entire website theme and there is no way to go into the dashboard to fix it. There are solutions to be tested, of course, but what if none work?
In this case, the website owner could lose customer information and accounts; wonderful reviews that helped you sell your products and all the recent blog content that attracted visitors to your store.
A concrete business strategy would be thrown directly into the trash due to the absence of a backup . Not to mention the unrecoverable work of perhaps years of investment.
The immortality of a backed up website
A backed up website is easily recoverable in any type of situation . Taking into account the example above about the online store, if this error happened to it, it would be enough to send last week’s backup to the server and the entire problem would be corrected.
No headache. Without worry. No loss of important data and years of investment in content production.
Reasons for needing to use a backup
It has already been said that adverse situations may make you need an immediate backup. We will go into detail about each one.
1. Viruses
When discovering a malware infection on the website, most people’s default stance is to try to find the threat and remove it . This task, although it seems simple, is very complicated. After all, you don’t know where the virus came from, how long it has been in your facility and what the future consequences of keeping it there will be.
Having a backup solves this problem immediately. Just restore it to a period when your website showed no sign of anything wrong with it.
2. Hosting issues
Unfortunately, there are hosting companies that leave a lot to be desired. Because of this, you may want to migrate your website to another location. With a backup ready, most companies offer migration for free , just needing to send the files to support.
3. Faulty themes or plugins
When you have a problem with a plugin or theme, simply deactivate it to resolve it. But what happens when this problem prevents you from accessing the WordPress dashboard or causes considerable errors in the database? There are countless solutions for this, of course. One of the easiest is to recover a previous version through backup.
Is it easy to make an automatic backup in WordPress?
In the past, to make a backup of a website it was necessary:
- Login to the FTP server.
- Copy the files to your computer (which could easily take a few hours).
- Login to PHP My Admin.
- Download a copy of the database.
- Put all of this together in a folder.
Today, all you have to do is install a plugin, configure it and it will automatically perform regular backups . So yes. It’s too easy to create an automatic backup in WordPress.
For this, there are several plugins. Each of them has pros and cons, but they will all allow you to create an efficient backup of your website .
What is the ideal backup frequency for a website?
The advisable frequency for a website to be backed up depends on a few factors. The most viewed recommendations are:
- Weekly backups: for blogs, online stores or frequently updated websites.
- Monthly backups: for static websites.
- Immediate backup: always before any relevant changes.
The best plugins to backup your website
Discover the best WordPress backup plugins
1. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is a free backup plugin for WordPress . With it, you can create a complete backup and store it on your computer or a cloud platform, such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
The plugin allows for regular scheduled backups, that is, automatic, partially or completely, depending on the settings chosen.
There is also a paid version of UpdraftPlus. It allows you to clone or migrate websites, replace databases and support multiple websites, not to mention priority support, which is extremely important in emergencies.
2. Duplicator
Duplicator is a WordPress website migration plugin, but it also has a backup function , since to migrate a certain installation it is necessary to have a backup copy of it.
Unlike the previous one, this plugin does not allow the creation of automatic backups, although it works perfectly for manual copies. It is on this list because there are those who prefer it for its simplicity and ability to install using its own code (which greatly speeds up the process).
3. BackupMigration
BackupMigration is one of the best backup and migration plugins for WordPress . In the words of the creators, through it, creating a backup has never been easier. It is possible to put this facility to the test in the plugin test (in a controlled environment) offered by their own page.
It makes it possible to schedule backups and do them automatically ; define where the backup will be stored and choose the backup name.
However, this free version is limited to 2 GB. If you exceed this storage space you will need to delete old backups or subscribe to their premium plan .
4. Backup Guard
Backup Guard is an amazing WordPress backup plugin. It offers a simple way to recover, migrate and create copies of your website , doing so with both your files and the database.
In its free version, although limited compared to the paid version, you can configure automatic backup in WordPress , as well as upload to cloud services (some only available in the pro plan).
5. All-in-one WP Migration
All-in-one WP Migration is a WordPress website backup and migration plugin with user-friendly and simple functions for beginner users . Launched in 2013, it is now used by more than 60 million installations.
Its advantage is that it is extremely simple. For a backup to be made, only 2 steps are necessary:
- Click on the export button (which combines all the files on your website into just one).
- Download this file.
Unfortunately, it does not have automatic copies, which leaves it behind its competitors. However, for manual backups it fulfills its role very well .
