Updates go wrong, sites get hacked and mistakes happen. A good backup turns a disaster into a five-minute fix.

What needs backing up

• The database: your posts, pages, settings, users and orders.
• The files: themes, plugins and your media uploads.

You need both to restore a working site.

How often?

Daily backups suit most business sites. Busy online stores should back up more often, or use real-time backups so no orders are lost.

Where to store backups

Never keep backups only on the same server as your website. Store copies off-site — for example in cloud storage — so a server problem does not take your backups with it.

Backup options

• Hosting backups: many managed hosts include daily backups.
• Backup plugins: tools like UpdraftPlus can send backups to cloud storage on a schedule.
• Managed maintenance: a team handles backups, checks and restores for you.

Test your restores

A backup is only useful if it works. Try restoring to a staging site every few months to be sure.

The best time to set up backups is before you need them.

Daily off-site backups and quick restores are included in our maintenance & security plans.

Further reading

• WordPress backups (WordPress.org)