Your WordPress website is a business asset. It may contain years of content, customer data, product information and design work. Without regular backups, a single hacking incident, failed update or server crash could wipe all of it out permanently.
This guide covers everything you need to know about backing up your WordPress site properly.
What you need to back up
A complete WordPress backup consists of two parts:
- The database — this contains all your content: posts, pages, comments, settings, user accounts, orders (if WooCommerce) and more
- The files — this includes WordPress core files, your theme, all plugins, and your uploads folder (images, PDFs, etc.)
⚠️ Many business owners only back up the database and forget the files — or vice versa. You need both to fully restore a WordPress site.
How often should you back up?
This depends on how frequently your site changes:
- Regular site health checks — ideal for most business websites, blogs and WooCommerce stores
- Weekly backups — acceptable for static sites that rarely change
- Real-time backups — recommended for high-traffic ecommerce stores where orders are placed continuously
We recommend regular site health checks as a minimum for any business website.
Where to store your backups
This is where many people go wrong. Storing backups only on your hosting server is not a backup — if the server fails or is compromised, your backup goes with it. Always store backups off-site:
- Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage
- Dropbox or Google Drive
- A dedicated remote backup service
Keep at least 30 days of backup history so you can restore to any point in the recent past — useful if a hack went undetected for several weeks.
WordPress backup plugins
Several good plugins can automate your WordPress backups:
- UpdraftPlus — the most popular free backup plugin; supports remote storage to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3 and more
- BackupBuddy — a premium plugin with excellent remote storage options
- Jetpack Backup — real-time backups by Automattic (the people behind WordPress)
- WP Time Capsule — incremental backups that only save changes, saving storage space
Testing your backups
A backup is worthless if it can't be restored. You should test your backups by doing a full restoration on a staging environment at least once every few months. Many businesses discover their backups are corrupt or incomplete only when disaster strikes — by which point it's too late.
💡 On our care plans, we take regular site health checks and store them securely off-site. On request, we can run a test restoration to confirm your backup is clean and complete.
How to restore a WordPress backup
The restoration process depends on your backup method, but typically involves:
- Downloading the backup files from remote storage
- Uploading the files to your hosting account via FTP or File Manager
- Importing the database backup via phpMyAdmin
- Updating the wp-config.php file if your database credentials have changed
This can be complex if you've never done it before — which is another reason to have a maintenance professional who knows your setup handle it for you.
💾 Are your backups set up correctly?
We'll check your existing backup setup as part of our free site review — and tell you honestly if it's adequate.
📞 Call 07964 186743