Everyone knows that you should back up your devices on a regular basis, but your website needs regular backups too.

Despite how important websites are to building a business, many businesses don’t have a regular backup schedule. However, without backups, your business loses all website changes made since the last backup.

It’s never too late to start scheduling backups to prepare for the worst. While you hope it never happens, being prepared takes only a few minutes and you’ll be glad you did.

1. Cybercriminals Don’t Take Holidays

Cybercriminals don’t care whether you have backups in place or if your business is large or small. Every website is a potential target. A shocking 46% of UK businesses discovered cyber breaches in 2017. While poor passwords and phishing emails are common entry points, poor website security is also a problem.

In a matter of seconds, your website could be compromised, leaving your business without an online presence. Without regular backups, you’re left without any quick way to recover. With a recent backup, you’d be able to upload the backup, patch any vulnerabilities and be back online within a day.

2. Vulnerabilities Happen

WordPress consistently releases updates to create a more secure platform, but vulnerabilities happen. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for ways to exploit even the tiniest vulnerabilities in the code. WordPress is often targeted because it’s the most widely used CMS, leading to millions of attacks every year.

If you haven’t updated WordPress, your website could be vulnerable. Having regular backups means even if your site is attacked, you can shut it down and recover from a backup. All you’d have to do is update to the most secure version of WordPress before going back online.

It’s also important to note that vulnerabilities in plugins and themes can also cause problems. Ensure you keep these updated as well.

3. Downtime Is Costly

For ecommerce sites, you likely already know how costly downtime is for your business. What you might not have considered is how much site traffic you’re losing when your website’s down. Instead of gaining new customers, potential customers are being directed to your competition.

You want your website back up and running as quickly as possible. This is impossible without regular backups. Every minute your site’s down is costing your business money.

4. Recovering From Scratch Is Impossible

If you’ve never performed a backup, recovery becomes a nightmare. Take a moment to think about how much content is on your website. Could you remember every blog post, product description, About Us details and other content? No one can. Without backups, you’d have to start over completely from scratch should something happen to your website.

5. Simple Human Error Could Erase Everything

Even the most secure website isn’t immune from simple human error. All it would take is someone to click the wrong button to suddenly compromise your website. They might accidentally erase a database or delete a line of code that cripples the site.

Luckily, if you have a recent backup, you’re back up and running in no time. Without it, you’d have to find a way to manually fix any issues and hope it fixes your website.

6. WordPress Changes Go Awry

Sometimes WordPress changes don’t always go as planned. For instance, uploading a new theme might seem simple enough, but after uploading, your visitors just see error messages instead of your website. A new plugin might negatively impact another plugin. A WordPress core update could render an older theme useless. The truth is, making changes isn’t always guaranteed to work out perfectly.

This is why you need regular backups. If changes don’t go well, you just go back to your most recent backup. You can then work to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

7. Building A Brand Takes Time

Part of the reason you have a website for your business is to build your brand. However, building a brand takes time. You can’t rank high on Google overnight. However, a compromised website can ruin your brand’s reputation in just a few days. Google might penalise your site if it’s not repaired quickly. Plus, visitors may be hesitant to come back after noticing your site’s down for an extended period.

Don’t let all your hard work go to waste. Instead, set up regular backups so you always have a way to get your website back online quickly. Plus, you won’t lose any new content, such as your latest blog post, that keeps visitors coming back.

If your site’s not being backed up regularly, contact me today to find out how to implement easy to use backup plugins today.

Image: Patrick Lindenberg

You maintain your car, your home and even your business, but what about your website?

WordPress sites require regular maintenance to perform well and stay as secure as possible against the latest threats. Avoiding these maintenance tasks due to time restrictions or budget could end up costing you more.

The solution is purchasing a WordPress checkup package. All the maintenance is handled by experts on a routine basis, saving you valuable time and money.

Site Maintenance Is Time Consuming

There’s more to maintaining your site than uploading new content regularly. You’d likely do more than just put petrol in your car, right? The same applies here. The problem is it takes time to learn how to do everything and more time to do it yourself. When you’re busy running a business, creating content for your site and working with your customers, you don’t always have that time.

Consider how much time it’d take you to do the following on a regular basis:

• Daily site backups
• WordPress updates
• Plugin/theme updates
• File backups
• Security scanning
• Uptime monitoring
• Bug fixes

You also have to think about what happens if your site is hacked and the time it’d take to recover. With scheduled checkups, someone else does all this for you. From a spring cleaning to monthly checks, you’ll save hours you can reinvest in your business.

Skipping Costs You Money

You might think it’s easier to just skip it. Things are working right for now and you can’t see a good reason for updating or backing up your site. A recent survey showed 47% of WordPress site owners only back their up every few months while 21% only do it occasionally.

Think of all the changes you make to your site within a few months. If you didn’t have a recent backup in the event of a failed update, a security issue or even accidental file deletion, you’d have to spend extra time trying to redo everything from the last few months.

You still might feel safe until you realize 30,000 new sites are hacked daily and hackers aren’t always interested in how popular your site is. It can happen to anyone.

Recovering your files, re-doing your website and dealing with days, weeks or even months of downtime all cost you money. Remember, the longer your site is down for maintenance, the more of your customers that you lose to the competition. Checkups keep your site up and running and you’ll only have minimal downtime in the event something does go wrong.

Maintenance Has To Be Done Right

In a perfect world, you could just push a button and your WordPress site, plugins and theme would update with no problems. In the real world, problems do happen. For instance, you might update WordPress and discover your theme is incompatible. What happens then? If you have a backup, you could always go back to your latest backup.

Another option is using professionals who can handle any issues that happen during the update process. Instead of your site being ruined, updates are performed and problems fixed without you or your visitors noticing anything.

Checkups Catch What You Might Miss

A WordPress checkup also checks your site to see what’s causing poor performance, downtime and glitches. These are things you might not have even found if you didn’t know exactly what to look for. Poor performance drives visitors away. With every visitor that leaves, you’re losing money.

Think of your site’s checkup like your own. You look in a mirror, but you can’t tell if your blood pressure is high, low or okay without a doctor checking you out. The same applies to your site. Sometimes it takes an expert eye to see what’s wrong. Just like a doctor, experts are able to diagnose and treat your site’s issues.

Conclusion

If you’ve invested in a website, the next logical step is to invest in a WordPress checkup. You might be able to handle some tasks on your own, but why risk missing something? These checkups are cost effective and save you precious time. Choose just what you need or let someone handle all the background maintenance for you. Your site’s health doesn’t have to decline as long as it’s well taken care of.

Does your site need a checkup? Contact StuartMedia’s Exeter Based WordPress Support Company – WP Get Support today for a variety of checkup options to suit any WordPress site. 

Image: Jaymis Loveday

One of the most important things you can do as a site owner is learn how to backup your WordPress business website.

You never know when something will go wrong and you’ll need to restore a previous theme, existing content or settings. It also helps to have a backup on hand if you suddenly need to switch hosts.

Backing up your site should be done on a regular schedule and before and after any major changes. Most businesses should backup sites daily or at least once per week. Creating backups isn’t difficult and could save you many headaches in the future.

Manual Backup

Performing a manual backup does require the business to understand where all the site’s files are stored. A proper backup includes the content and settings for the entire site. Missing a single file could prevent a full restore if necessary. While this method is effective, it will require some expertise. Plus, it’s easy to forget to perform a backup. If you use this method, copy the backup to a separate drive to keep it secure.

Takeaway: Manual backups are the most difficult option. If you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, hire a WordPress expert to perform the backup for you. They’ll know exactly which files to copy and how to restore your site if there is ever a problem.

cPanel Backup

Many hosting platforms use cPanel which offers an easy to use WordPress backup option. In most cases, you’ll go through a guided step by step process to backup all files to related to your site, including settings, content and themes. The biggest downside is if you want to move your site to a new host or server, the destination host will also need cPanel for a successful transfer. However, it is easy to use.

Takeaway: If your business site’s host offers cPanel, create a backup schedule and store any backups in a safe location. Don’t store the backups on the same server you create them on.

Plugin Backup

For a more automated process, you can backup your WordPress business site via a plugin. Once you install a plug-in, you must choose the desired settings to create automatic backups. Most plugins allow you to choose the schedule, how many backups to keep, where to store the backups and even which files to backup. Many store the backup to a cloud server or a hard drive of your choice. It’s important to correctly install and configure the plugin or your backups may not be fully functional.

WordPress has several free backup plugins such as Ready! Backup, UpdraftPlus Backup and Restore and blogVault Real-time Backup. Forbes also recommends BackupBuddy which is designed specifically for businesses. If none of these are right for you, consult a WordPress developer to create a custom backup plugin for you.

Takeaway: Plugins are an ideal way to ensure you always have a backup on hand. If you have any problems installing the plugin, contact a professional WordPress developer to avoid placing your site backups at risk.

phpMyAdmin Backup

While cPanel is one of the most control panel for web hosts, many others still support backups via phpMyAdmin. The exact location varies depending on your host. However, once you find the option, it is usually a fairly easy to understand step by step process to backup your entire site. WordPress provides official instructions for finding phpMyAdmin on six different control panels. If you’re uncertain if the option is available to you, contact your web host for details.

Takeaway: This option does require you to initiate the backup every time. However, it is much simpler than the manual process. A WordPress professional can do this for you if you’re uncomfortable with the process.

Third Party Backup

The final option requires using a third party to backup your WordPress business site. In this instance, the business isn’t required to initiate or store any backups themselves. Many companies offer WordPress backup services. Before choosing a backup company, ensure they’re backing up the entire site and have multiple servers to prevent data loss. This is more costly than the other options, but it is an effective way to ensure backups are performed on a regular schedule without your interference.

Takeaway: Using a third party backup service lets you place the responsibility for backups in someone else’s hands. These services usually keep multiple backups at once. Ensure the service meets all your needs and offers multiple layers of security to keep data safe.

Conclusion

Whether you do it yourself, rely on a third party or hire a WordPress developer to help, you should backup your WordPress site regularly. When the worst happens, a backup will save your site and possibly even your business.

If you need help with your backup  needs, contact StuartMedia for assistance.

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