Almost everyone with a WordPress site says they have backups. Far fewer can say where those backups are, how recent they are, or whether anyone has ever tried restoring one. A backup you’ve never tested is really just a hope and the moment you need it is the worst time to find out it doesn’t work.
What a good backup actually includes
A complete WordPress backup has two parts: the files (themes, plugins, uploads) and the database (your pages, posts, settings, and orders). Backing up only one of them gives you something that can’t be restored into a working site. Make sure whatever you use captures both.
What to automate
The backup itself should never depend on someone remembering. Set it on a schedule that matches how often your site changes daily for a store or a busy site, weekly for a mostly static brochure site. Many managed hosts include this, which is one reason hosting matters, as we explain in choosing a domain and hosting.
Keep a copy somewhere else
Backups stored only on the same server as your site fail together with it. If the server is compromised or goes down, the backups go too. Keep at least one copy offsite, such as cloud storage on a separate account. A common rule of thumb is three copies, on two different kinds of storage, with one offsite.
What to check yourself
Automation doesn’t confirm that anything worked. Every so often, check three things: the most recent backup is actually recent, the file size looks reasonable (a suspiciously tiny backup often means something was skipped), and you know exactly how to restore it. Ideally, test a restore on a staging copy at least once, so the first time you do it isn’t during an emergency.
Where backups fit into security
Backups are your safety net, not your defense. They won’t stop a hack, but they decide how painful recovery is when one happens. They work best alongside the habits in our WordPress security checklist, and they’re one of the first things we set up for clients on a maintenance plan.
If you’re not sure yours work
The honest answer for a lot of sites is “probably.” If you’d like someone to confirm where your backups live and test a restore, that’s part of our maintenance and support service, and an easy thing to raise on a discovery call.
“A backup you’ve never restored is a guess. A backup you’ve tested is a plan.”
