What Is Backup in WordPress? An In-Depth Guide for Beginners

As an experienced webmaster with over 15 years working with WordPress, I know firsthand how vital backups are for protecting any WordPress site. A backup creates a copy of your WordPress files and database, acting as a safety net if disaster ever strikes your site.

In this beginner‘s guide, we‘ll explore backups in-depth so you can fully secure your WordPress site. I‘ll share my insight on everything from why you need backups, what files to include, choosing backup software, optimal backup schedules, offsite storage, and detailed steps for restoration.

Let‘s dive in!

Why Backups Are Critical for Any WordPress Site

Having recent backups is one of the most important things you can do to safeguard your WordPress site. Here are some of the main reasons every WordPress site needs regular backups:

• Disaster Recovery: Backups give you the ability to restore your site if it is ever hacked, infected with malware, or experiences catastrophic failure due to a server crash or accidental deletion.

• Migration: Backups make it easy to migrate your site to a new host or server. You can simply restore the backup to the new environment.

• Testing: Backups allow you to create a staging site where you can test changes without affecting your live production site.

• Lost Content: If you ever lose pages, posts, images or other content, your backup acts as an archive where you can retrieve the missing items.

According to Sucuri, over 28 million WordPress sites were infected with malware in 2021. Additionally, 1 in 20 WordPress sites will be hacked in their lifetime.

Without regular backups, recovering from these types of threats could mean losing days, weeks, or even months of work. The downtime could also severely impact your business or organization.

That‘s why backups should be considered absolutely essential for any professional or organization relying on WordPress.

| Reason to Backup a WordPress Site |
|-|-|
| Disaster Recovery |
| Website Migrations |
| Testing Changes |
| Retrieve Lost Content |

Critical WordPress Files That Must Be Backed Up

A complete WordPress backup includes two key components:

Database: Your WordPress database contains all of your site‘s content and settings, including:

• Pages, posts, comments
• Users and roles
• Navigation menus
• Widgets
• Plugins settings
• Themes settings

This data is stored in MySQL format.

Files: This includes all the files that make up your WordPress site:

• WordPress core files
• Installed plugins
• Active theme files
• Media files uploaded to the library
• Other custom code files and overrides

These files reside on your web server or hosting account.

Only backing up your files or only backing up the database would not allow you to fully restore your site. A proper WordPress backup must include both components.

| Must-Backup WordPress Components |
|-|-|
| MySQL Database |
| WordPress Core Files |
| Active Plugins + Themes |
| Media Library |

Choosing WordPress Backup Software

While it‘s possible to manually create WordPress backups, doing this consistently would require an unrealistic amount of effort.

The easiest approach is to use an automated WordPress backup plugin. Here are some top options to consider:

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a very popular free WordPress backup plugin with over 3 million active installs. It can:

• Schedule automatic backups to run daily, weekly, or monthly
• Backup to destinations like Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, FTP, and more
• Create backups when updates are made to themes, plugins, core
• Limit the number of backups stored to conserve space

UpdraftPlus is extremely easy to configure. Just install, connect your storage service, and schedule when to capture backups.

BackWPup

BackWPup is another free WordPress backup plugin that is especially good for large sites. It provides:

• Scheduled backups with cron jobs
• Backup to folders, FTP, clouds, and more
• Configurable backup job settings
• Logs and reporting

BackWPup works great for individual WordPress sites as well as multisite networks.

VaultPress

VaultPress is a popular premium backup option from Automattic, the developers behind WordPress. Key features include:

• Real-time backups on every save or publish
• Malware scanning and threat detection
• Priority live chat and email support
• Automated restore process

Pricing starts at $14 per month. Vaultpress is an excellent choice for business-critical sites that need responsive support and maximum backup frequency.

BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy from iThemes is a robust premium plugin with advanced backup and migration features. It offers:

• Complete backups of entire site
• Easy migration tools to move to new hosts or servers
• Cloud storage integrations
• Database backups and snapshots
• Custom backup schedules

Plans start at $80 per year. BackupBuddy is great for site owners who know they‘ll need to migrate their site soon.

How Often Should You Backup Your WordPress Site?

My recommendation is to backup your WordPress site at least once per day. However, the ideal frequency depends on factors like:

Update Frequency

• Sites updated multiple times per day should increase backup frequency to twice daily or even real-time.

• Sites with infrequent updates may only need weekly or monthly scheduled backups.

Business Criticality

• Ecommerce sites or client sites with high revenue dependence need more frequent backups, even real-time.

• Personal blogs or minor hobby sites can likely get by with daily or weekly backups.

Backup Speed

• Sites with large media libraries may need to limit backups to once daily to avoid excess resource load.

• Sites with incremental backup plugins can capture backups more often.

To determine the best cadence, monitor how quickly backups complete and balance frequency with performance. Start with daily, assess site recovery time in tests, then adjust as needed.

Where Should You Store WordPress Backups?

It‘s crucial to store backups in an offsite location outside of your live WordPress environment.

Keep backups in a different physical location than your web server. Popular storage destinations include:

• Cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox: Easy and affordable, ensures geographic redundancy.

• Remote FTP server or storage service: Provides automated offsite transfer and storage.

• Local external hard drive: Low cost, but manual transfer is required for offsite. Higher risk of damage compared to cloud or remote server.

For maximum redundancy, utilize both local and cloud storage. Test backups from each location to ensure you can successfully restore your site.

Step-By-Step Guide to Restoring Your Site from a WordPress Backup

In the event of a disaster, restoring your WordPress site from a recent backup will get you back online quickly. Here is a detailed walkthrough:

1. Delete Existing WordPress Installation

First, use FTP or your host control panel to delete all files and folders in your existing WordPress installation. This removes any corrupted files.

Next, access phpMyAdmin or similar tools and drop all tables in your WordPress database. This wipes the database clean for the restore.

2. Upload Backup Files to Server

Through FTP, upload your WordPress backup files to your web server. Recreate the file and folder structure needed for WordPress including /wp-admin, /wp-includes, and /wp-content.

3. Import Your SQL Database

Use phpMyAdmin to import your WordPress SQL database backup. This will recreate all your site‘s content and settings in the database.

4. Update File Permissions

Double check that all folders like /wp-content have appropriate write permissions. Update folder and file permissions if needed.

5. Update URLs (if migrating domains)

If restoring to a new domain name, perform a search and replace on the database to update all URLs to the new domain.

6. Test Restored Site

Try logging in to the WordPress dashboard, browse site pages, test images, verify menus appear, etc. Spot check to confirm the restored site looks and functions correctly.

With those steps, you should have your WordPress site back in action using your latest backup. Be sure to re-enable your automated backups going forward!

Protect Your Hard Work With Reliable WordPress Backups

Creating backups for your WordPress site provides tremendous peace of mind. You can confidently make changes, update plugins, try new themes, and expand content with the safety net of a recent backup.

Follow the tips in this guide to implement a smart WordPress backup strategy:

• Use automated software to create backups effortlessly
• Backup your database AND web files
• Store backups in the cloud or offsite location
• Test your ability to restore from backups
• Adjust backup frequency based on site activity and criticality

Your hard work deserves the protection that only a proper WordPress backup can provide. Stay safe out there!