If you’re a blogger or website owner, then you know that backing up your website is essential, especially when your website is also a source of income. Having your website down for long periods of time can be a huge problem and it can affect your business in a negative way.
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms used today and that is why I decided to focus on back up solutions for WordPress websites. . Fortunately, you don’t have to be a tech-savvy to work with WordPress, so there are lots of easy to use plugins which will do the job for you.
There are two ways you can backup your WordPress website. You can either do it manually, or easier, you can install a backup plugin and let it do all the work for you.
1. Manual backup
Method 1 : Make a Database Backup via MySQL
- Login to phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress Database.
- Click on the “Export” tab.
- Choose gzip method of compression, as this one is recommended, and click Execute.
- Download the archive on your computer.
Method 2: Use cPanel Backup method
- Login to cPanel.
- Click on “Backups”.
- Scroll down to “Download a MySQL Database Backup”
- Select database and download the backup.
2. Automatic backup
For automatic backups you will use WordPress plugins. You can use free or premium plugins. For smaller websites I recommend free plugins, however, if your website has a lot of traffic and it is an important source of income for you, you should invest in a monthly paid premium backup plugin.
Here I will show you three of the best WordPress backup plugins you can use for free.
BackUpWordPress backs up your entire site with the complete database and files. You can set up schedules. Also, you can exclude files and folders from your backups. This plugin is very easy to use, has very good support and it is also free.
With this plugin you can schedule complete automatic backups of your WordPress website. You can also choose to store backups on external cloud services like Dropbox, for example. It also has an option to check and repair the database and also optimize it.
This great plugin will help you keep your WordPress website backups with all the media and databases backed up to Dropbox. You can easily backup your website in minutes and store all the backups on your Dropbox account. You can also schedule automatic backups.
~Ruxandra Micu
Do these plugins say anything about Restoring.
You can upload the backup via FTP to the location where you want to restore it. Or, if it’s easier, you can ask your hosting provider to restore it and send him the backup archive.