There are a few different reasons you might need to backup your WordPress site. It’s something you should do from time to time anyway, just in case your site crashes, or is compromised.
It’s also imperative to do a full backup before doing a major update, or if you’re moving your website to a different host. If you’ve never backed up your own site before, here are a few tips to guide you along the way.
Save Your Content
If you have a WordPress website, it’s a smart idea to backup all of your content periodically. You can do this by logging into your dashboard. Look for the “Tools” menu on the left side and click it. Then look for an option that reads “Export”.
When you get to the export screen, you can choose to backup some or all of your content. If you’re updating your website, or moving it, you want a full backup. So, select “All Content” then click that button that reads “Download Export File”. Save this download to a folder on your device, and in your cloud storage. You may need it later.
Download Your Other Files
If you have other files hosted on your website like your opt-in report or your favicon, you’ll want to download those, too. How to do this task differs depending on which control panel your host uses.
But for most people, you can open cPanel and look for the file manager. Browse until you find the files you want to keep and download them to your device. Ideally, you should save them in the same folder as your WordPress backups.
Export Your Database
If you’re using WordPress, it’s not enough to download your content. You’ll also need a backup of your database. To do this, you can sign into your control panel and look for the PHP Admin section. Then find your database and click “Export”. You can save the file with your other backups.
If you’d rather not deal with the database yourself, you can try using a backup plugin that does it for you automatically. A good plugin for this job is Backup Buddy. It creates a copy of your database that you can download to your device or store in the cloud so that you can access it from anywhere.
Additional Software
Some solopreneurs use WordPress along with other software like aMember or WooCommerce. If you want to backup other applications that you’re running on your website, you need to reach out to the individual software companies. They can provide instructions on how to backup their products.
Backing up your website can be a big job. If you have a website designer or virtual assistant who is familiar with WordPress, then you can always consider outsourcing it. The important thing is to make sure everything is backed up regularly, and especially before doing updates or moves that might mess up your website.
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