Why WordPress Backups are Critical for Business Sites

What would happen if your WordPress website disappeared in the next 5 minutes? Say the server has a meltdown… or your site gets thoroughly hacked…

Would you be okay? Do you have a recent backup of your site files and database somewhere safe, that you can get to and recover on your own quickly? Or not? Or do you even know?

Many hosts perform backups of their servers. However, I personally don’t like relying on that for my own business websites. I like to know for sure that I have a complete site backup that was taken in the last seven days, if not a daily backup. In my experience with various hosts, trying to help a client recover from a hacking episode, I’ve encountered everything from hosts who had a 5-day-old backup to those who didn’t have any at all. It’s just too chancy.

The more you use and rely on your WordPress site, the more critical fresh backups are. And if you’re like me, you probably feel better when you have control and assurance on exactly what’s being backed up and when.

The value of a fresh backup becomes obvious when a disaster happens. If you have one, then recovering becomes as simple as wiping out the affected site and replacing it with your clean backup version. Without a fresh backup, you’re likely looking at hundreds of dollars, minimum, to clean up your site. And running the risk of losing critical content that you’d have to recreate. How much time and money would that cost?

The more important your site is to your business, the more you need to be sure you have the backups you need to recover from a catastrophe.