Why it’s ESSENTIAL to Back Up Your Website!
You’ve heard it before…and you’ll hear it again. Backing up your website is absolutely essential!
Even though most of us understand why it’s so important, a lot of us are procrastinators or just not sure how/what to do when it comes to keeping regular backups. We totally get it.
If you’ve ever had your computer crash or restart right in the middle of a really looong document or something else important you’re working on, you know the importance of backing up and saving your work. When stuff like this happens, you either thank your lucky stars that you’ve been backing it up/saving on a regular basis or you fall on the floor grasping your barely-beating heart screaming “nooooooo!” (or some other more R-rated version of that).
Side note: his actually happened to my (Janet) husband last week, he went a week without a computer! (Can you imagine!?) Luckily, the heroes at Best Buy Geek Squad were able to retrieve most of his stuff. He had to get a new hard-drive (among other things) and spend a few $$ – he’s now finally listened and has set up BackBlaze.
Show your website a little love. It needs backing up too!
Your poor, helpless website is trying to do its job, but if you’re not keeping it updated, secure and backed up, you’re just asking for trouble.
It can get hacked, you may accidentally delete something very important, you could have a crappy web host that deletes things without asking or maybe you forget to pay to renew your domain name. Ooops! (Yep, these are things that really happen, see more here.)
We can only speak about WordPress websites since that’s our specialty, but in all of the cases mentioned above, we would be able to get you back in business – IF there’s a current, clean, full backup of the website.
If you aren’t backing up your website regularly, you are setting yourself up for a very bad week (to say the very least). You could possibly lose years of work! Poof! Down the black hole of cyberspace death, never to return. Can you even imagine!? The horror!
Not backing up your website = Imminent cyberspace death #websitetips Click To TweetWhen crap happens to your website, it CAN be fixed IF you have a current, reliable backup.
So why risk it? Can you afford to lose up-time online, your valuable content, or the price you’ll have to pay to re-build your site if it’s lost? See our Starbucks cost comparison here.
Yes, some web hosts offer some sort of backup, but those backups are usually stored on the same server where your website is located. If something were to happen to the server, you may lose your backups (or your entire website, which is exactly what happened to two recent clients). Or maybe your web host doesn’t perform regular back ups or back up ALL of your website files (most only back up certain files and not everything.) It’s not a good idea to put all of your website backup eggs in to your web host basket.
There are all kinds of back up services, and it can get confusing! How can you know what’s really reliable, how to set it up properly, or how to test to make sure it’s actually working?
Here’s what we recommend and no… it’s NOT a “free” backup plugin. Remember, you get what you pay for! Don’t count on anything in the way of support or help if you actually need to restore your site. (Though, if you really don’t have a few dollars to make sure you’re online buns are covered, free is better than nothing.)
We strongly recommend to all of our clients that they purchase a premium backup service or plugin.
When purchasing a backup plugin or service, you’re paying for a reliable product that includes support, updates, new features, and more.
Our top WordPress website backup options
- BackUp Buddy Set up and configuration is done by you. You monitor as well. They do have support when you need it!
- VaultPress Very user friendly plus support to help you set it up. Easy restore when you need. it.
- And our TOP recommendation for backups and more. Perfect if you want backups, security and updates done for you: The Golden Maintenance Package Sleep at night knowing your website is backed up, monitored for security and all software updates to your plugins, WordPress and theme are done for you + a ton more!
Setting up a third-party backup product for your WordPress website is so very crucial and essential!
Here’s your homework: If you aren’t backing up your site, not sure if you’re backing up your site or not confident your backups are reliable – choose one of our recommendations above. And… if you need help deciding or setting it up, we’re happy to help.
Make sure your website is properly protected with a strong safety net and give yourself some peace of mind knowing that if something does go wrong, then you, your website, and your business are going to be OK.
Have you had any website nightmares that could have been avoided if you had a good backup? Tell us about it below and help someone else avoid the black hole of cyberspace death. It’s your duty. 🙂
Great post – I’m one of those people who only goes with the basic backup that my hosting service offers. I’ve added this to my to-do list for the weekend.
Yay! So happy to hear that! That old saying rings true with backups…”It’s better to be safe than sorry!” 🙂
This is so important. My site was actually hacked earlier this year and I didn’t have a backup! Luckily they were able to salvage it but it was scary.
It IS really scary! Most people don’t worry about this stuff until something like this happens. Glad you were able to get it fixed!
Such good info! Will definitely be checking out VaultPress very soon. Just pinned this post to a few Pinterest boards for other bloggers + site owners as well! 🙂
Glad it helped you! Thanks Rebekah!