In this lesson, we are going to talk about an essential part of managing your WordPress website.
Backing up your valuable data.
Accidents can happen and it's crucial to have a backup of your site in case anything goes wrong.
It is also advised to backup your site before updating WordPress core, themes or plugins,
before installing new plugins or themes, before migrating or moving your site and after significant content updates.
We'll explore two methods to backup your WordPress site.
Number one, using your hosting company or number two, using a backup plugin.
There is also a manual way of backing up your site, but we will briefly touch on that at the end.
The method of using your hosting company for backups is probably the easiest way.
Different hosting companies have different interfaces or ways of backing up your site.
But you can learn how that works if you make your way to the backup and restore page of the control panel of your hosting company.
I will use my Pressable website to explain how the process works as this is where I have a hosting account.
Once I have logged into my control panel, I will make my way to backups and restores.
At the top, we will see available updates for the file system
as well as the database.
And these updates are done automatically by my hosting company.
You might be asking, what is the difference between the file system and the database?
When we talk about the file system backup, we are referring to backing up the files and folders that make up your website.
These files include your WordPress core files, themes, plugins, media uploads and any other files associated with your website.
On the other hand, database backup focuses on backing up the data stored in your website's database.
In WordPress, the database is where all the textual content, settings, user information and other dynamic data are stored.
It includes posts, pages, comments, user profiles and much more.
As mentioned, my hosting company automatically makes updates of my site.
But below the automatic updates, you will notice I can also choose to backup my site right now, which is called on-demand.
Let's go ahead and update my file system and database on-demand.
Now we can see our most recent on-demand file system backup as well as database backup.
Now these backups will also appear in the list of available file system backups as well as available database backups.
So if something goes wrong and you need to backup your site to a previous version, you can merely select the backup
and then click Restore.
So if you have backups of your site, you never have to panic.
Next, we are going to take a closer look at using a plugin if this is the option you prefer or if you don't have the option with your hosting company.
There are various plugins available in the Plugins Directory such as Updraft Plus, Jetpack, Duplicator etc.
For this demo, we will go ahead and install and activate the Updraft pPlus plugin.
Once activated, we can make our way to settings.
Below the backup and restore tab, we will see the next scheduled backups as well as existing backups.
And at the top right, we will notice the large call to action or buttons block backup now, which will allow you to make an on-demand backup of your file system as well as your database.
I am going to go ahead and make a backup of my site right now.
Then you will also see options to configure backups for your database, your file system or both.
And then we can select backup now.
Once backed up, we will notice that this on-demand backup displays below existing backups.
And if anything goes wrong, you can merely restore your website below actions.
When you go to settings, you will be able to set up a backup schedule for your website.
And for this example, I am going to say I want my site to be updated on a daily basis.
And on the right, you can choose how many backups you want your plugin to retain or store.
And below that, you can select where you want your backups to be stored.
There are more options worth exploring, but once you have set up your plugin, you can be rest assured that you have a backup in place if the need ever arises.
At this stage, it's also worth highlighting a best practice when backing up your site.
Store a copy of your backups in a location separate from your web server.
Cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. are good options.
This ensures that your backups remain safe even if your server experiences issues.
Finally, you also have the option to manually update your database via PHPMyAdimin, and your file system via your website's server using an FTP client or a file manager in your hosting control panel.
These methods are more technical and therefore we will add links to other resources if you would like to learn more.
It does not matter which method you choose, but it's crucial to regularly perform backups to protect your website and its valuable data.