How to Back Up Your WordPress Site?

Having a backup of your WordPress site is like having insurance for your website. When things are going well, it is tedious to think about, but when anything goes wrong, it is quite helpful to have this knowledge. You may be sure that something is going wrong at all times because WordPress is responsible for powering the internet nowadays.

Backing up your WordPress website can appear to be a significant chore, despite the fact that it is essential. This is especially true if you have an online store or a website that receives a lot of traffic. But it is not necessarily the case. In this piece, we will demonstrate how to back up a WordPress website in a matter of minutes, and we will also ensure that it remains secure for an indefinite extended period of time.

Backups in WordPress: What Are They?

A backup of your WordPress website is a complete copy of your website that can be restored in the event that something goes wrong with an individual’s website. You may back up your WordPress site in a number of different methods, including utilizing your web hosting provider, using a plugin that is specifically designed for WordPress backups, or even attempting to do it manually. Nevertheless, not every backup is constructed in the same way. It is essential to maintain backups of WordPress in order to ensure that you do not experience any anxiety regarding the possibility of losing data from your website.

This is of utmost importance for websites that deal with e-commerce and contain information on customers and orders, as well as those that are associated with legal firms. It is possible for months’ worth of effort to be lost due to simple human error, virus, or even a server failure, which can result in severe loss. The use of backups mitigates the risk of those events. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the process of backing up a WordPress website, as well as the most effective method for doing so.

 

Why it is essential to have backups for WordPress-

There are many different things that could go wrong with a website that is powered by WordPress. Because of this, you need to have a current backup of your WordPress website kept on an external server, which means that it should be located in a different place than your web host server. This will protect your website in the event that it has a crash or if content is destroyed by accident.

 

How to backup WordPress website-

Let’s have a look at the various ways in which you can build a backup of your WordPress environment.

1. How to manually create a backup of your WordPress site:

It is advantageous to be familiar with the specifics of how to perform a manual backup. It is comparable to being able to operate a stick shifter when all of the other vehicles are automated. Furthermore, you have the option to manually back up your WordPress website by utilizing the cPanel that is provided by your WordPress hosting service.

When it comes to manual backups, the first thing you need to be aware of is that in order to create a full backup of WordPress, you will need to take two partial backups. To put this another way, you will need to create backups of the database and the files individually, and then remember to store the two backups together again.

 

1. Backups of the database: If you have access to cPanel, all you need to do to access your database is click on phpMyAdmin. In order to access your database, you will require the login credentials, which can be found in either your WordPress configuration file or your hosting account.

 

2. Backups of files:

• cPanel: The majority of web servers offer cPanel, which is a well-known control panel software, for the purpose of managing your website. You may, however, be using a different one, such as Plesk or Webmin, depending on your web server. For example, cPanel or Plesk will provide a tool similar to File Manager that will enable you to view the files that are associated with your website.

 

• FTP: If your web server does not offer a control panel, you can utilize File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to get a copy of the files that make up your website. There is a slight increase in the amount of time required to accomplish this task, and in order to connect to your website, you will require an FTP software.

 

2. How to use a plugin to back up your WordPress site:

When it comes to backing up a WordPress site, using a plugin is the most straightforward and dependable method. When you use backup plugins, you won’t have to go through the trouble of downloading copies of your website by logging into cPanel or Plesk and using those application features. You are able to save a significant amount of time and effort by scheduling automatic backups and using restores that only need one click.

Making use of a plugin such as Duplicator is the most straightforward approach to creating backups. Over one million and five hundred thousand professionals use it because it is the best backup plugin for WordPress. Your website may be cloned, migrated, and backed up with the help of Duplicator, which is a plugin that is user-friendly and suitable for beginners.

Because it offers additional capabilities such as scheduled backups, recovery points, integration with cloud storage, migration tool, and more, the Duplicator Pro plugin is going to be the one that we utilize for this lesson. Additionally, there is a free version of Duplicator that you can use to get started with the program.

The first step is to download and install the Duplicator Pro plugin, and then activate it. In the event that you require assistance, kindly refer to our tutorial on how to install a plugin for WordPress. After the activation process is complete, you will be able to navigate to the ‘Licensing’ option inside the Duplicator Pro settings section of your WordPress admin panel. Proceed with the process of entering the license key, which can be found in the section of the account.

From the WordPress dashboard, you will need to navigate to the Duplicator Pro » Packages page in order to proceed.

Simply select the ‘Create New’ option located in the upper right-hand corner of this page.
On the following screen, you will be required to give your backup a name when you enter it.

In the event that you need to restore a website, this will let you locate the package more easily.

If you go to the Storage section, you will find the option to add an additional storage location for your package. The plugin will save your backup files at the place that is typically used by the plugin.

The default location will be utilized for the purpose of this tutorial. You can, however, add a new storage place by clicking the ‘Add Storage’ link and selecting a service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

Simply scroll down until you reach the Archive area, where you can make adjustments to your backup. In particular, the plugin enables you to just back up the database, filter files, directories, and extensions, and perform a number of other functions.

Maintaining the default settings and not making any changes to the Archive section is something that we strongly advise you to do if you want to ensure that your website is backed up in its entirety.

After that, you can proceed to the Installer part by scrolling down. During the process of installing the backup, these are settings that are not required but can be selected if desired.

Simply clicking the “Next” button will allow you to remove this part from the list of options.

Now that the plugin has been installed, it will do a check to ensure that everything is in order before creating a backup of your website.

If everything appears to be in order, it will provide a “Good” evaluation; otherwise, it will display a warning so that you can remedy the situation as soon as possible before backing up the website.

After that, you can proceed by clicking the ‘Build’ button located at the bottom of the page.

Now, Duplicator will begin the process of constructing a package.

In order to examine the backup once it has been completed, you can navigate to the Duplicator Pro » Packages section of your dashboard.

 

Conclusion-

WordPress backups are an essential component of your website maintenance toolkit and should not be overlooked. In the event that something goes wrong with your WordPress site, you should be able to restore it and know how to do so now that you know how to back it up. From this point forward, all you need to do to recover your website is follow the instructions in the import wizard. To acquire additional information, you may consult our detailed guide that explains how to restore WordPress from a backup.