Website Security: Backing Up Your WordPress Site, Part 2

In our last WordPress Wednesday, we explained why it’s mission-critical to routinely back up your WordPress site. If you missed that post, you may want to pop over and check it out before you read this post about how to do it .

We not only explain why backups are an important security measure, but we also offer some basic rules for when to perform backups and where to store them.

Let’s dive into how you can back up your WordPress site. The first thing you need to know is that you need to perform two backups to save everything on your site. 

Two Parts to Backing Up Your WordPress Site

The two parts (or two backups, really) to backing up your WordPress site are backing up your files and backing up your database.

Your files include the things that make your site look and operate the way it does. Those elements include your core WordPress installation, themes, plugins, images, files (e.g., documents), and code files. These things that make your site look like your site are contained in your WordPress file.

Your WordPress database includes your posts, pages, and comments, as well as the code that organizes them on your site.

First, we’ll explain how to back up your files, and then we’ll walk through backing up your database. Keep in mind that neither the files nor the data backup is difficult – they’re actually pretty easy once you learn the steps. But they can be a bit time-consuming, especially if your business model is going to require them frequently.

Two Ways to Back Up Your WordPress Files

Your backup choices are automatic and manual, and each of those ways have a few methods for backing up your site files.

Automatically Back Up Your WordPress Files [h3]

Some hosting companies will automatically back up your site at monthly, weekly, or even daily intervals. There are also a variety of plugins you can install on your site to perform automatic backups of your website. You can check the WordPress Plugin Directory to explore your options.

Manually Back Up Your WordPress Files – Two Options

The first option for backing up your files is to use a file manager in your host’s control panel. Plesk, cPanel, and DirectAdmin are among the most popular file managers you may find there.

The second method for file backup is to use an FTP (file transfer protocol) or SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) client. As the name may suggest, a SFTP client is safer, as the files are transferred over a secure connection. If it’s available to you, use an SFTP client.

Free Software for File Transfer Protocol

Two, free FTP/SFTP options are WinSCP (file manager specifically for Windows) and FileZilla.

Once you’ve downloaded the file manager software, you’ll need your FTP (or SFTP) website address, its username, and its password. These are different from your existing WordPress credentials. If you don’t already have an account for FTP/SFTP, you can create it in your cPanel.

The simplest way to walk you through the steps required to use FileZilla to back up your WordPress files, is to direct you to WordPress.org’s tutorial page, found HERE.  There, you will find the steps to register the FTP server and back up your files.

Detailed steps for creating a backup using WinSCP can be found on THIS WordPress.org instructional page.

Backing Up Your WordPress Data

Whew! We’re halfway there. Are you still with us? Great!

Let’s start with some good news. Remember how we told you there are plugin options for automatically backing up your files? Well, there are also plugins you can install that will automatically back up your data. You can pop over to the WordPress Plugin Directory and do another search for plugins that back up your site data.

Manually Backing Up Your WordPress Data

Okay, here’s where things get a little bit muddled. How you will manually backup your WordPress site depends upon which software options you have access to. You may need to backup using cPanel X, phpMyAdmin, My SQL/Maria DB commands, My SQL Workbench, or My SQL GUI Tools, each of which require several steps to back up your WordPress data.

Since we don’t know which of these tools you’ll use, it’s again simpler to direct you to WordPress’ own resources for backing up your database. If you know which type of software you’ll be using, this WordPress.org article enumerates the steps for each of them.

Again, using these tools isn’t difficult to do. You just need to follow the instructions closely. However, you may be wasting time and energy if you decide to manually backup your data when there are simpler options, such as automatic plugins and outsourcing your backups to ensure they’re done accurately and on time.

At the End of the Day

Don’t wait until something goes wrong to think about WordPress backups! Remember: hackers are working round the clock to wreak havoc and make money through unethical means. Don’t be a victim of an online attack that could potentially create long-term challenges for you and your business.

Come up with a plan around how frequently you need to back up your site and make sure you do them every time. If you’d rather not deal with the headache of keeping up with WordPress backups, get in touch with us about which of our Care Plans is right for you. We can keep you up and running, safe and secure, while also saving you the headaches of managing backup on your own.