Backups are one of the most important maintenance functions you can do on your website. Just as you would save a document on your computer for later use, you should do the same for your website and any databases, in-case something terrible happens such as the following..
If you update the core WordPress files or a plugin, sometimes the update may not run properly and you may need to restore your backup & start again, If you’re editing your site and playing in areas that perhaps you shouldn’t be (e.g. in the functions.php file), depending on the severity of the problem, you may need to restore your backup, If your site gets hacked, having a backup to restore to will mean all your hard work doesn’t go down the drain.
We suggest you do a backup of all your website files and databases after a few page or post edits, keep a copy of your most recent posts on your local computer so if anything untoward happens in the few days you have not backed up, you will still have a copy of the content.
If you do not edit or make changes to your website often, there will not be much need to backup, unless of course you’ve made some changes.
[Normal_Box]You are able to backup your website files and databases via your web hosting control panel. Creating a backup allows you to download your website as a zip file to your computer, you can use this to make a regular backup of your website in case you lose any data. In the event of data loss you can use any previous backup to restore your website. Please note that this only backs up the website files (as available via FTP). This means, for example, that databases are not backed up here: you can modify and back them up from the databases page.
What I would also recommend as good practice is to take backups, but utilise a “cloud” function or a remote storage facility, with your chosen backup option to copy backups over to Dropbox or even FTP to your own machine. This would give you the advantage of having the backups but storing them in an offsite location making the backups safer. Here are some suggestions of commonly used backup plugins, such as those used in WordPress, Joomla, etc.
– Updraft Plus
– Akeeba
– Backup Buddy
You must not use the Web Hosting Services as an offsite backup facility. Therefore, all files uploaded to our servers as part of your usage of the Web Hosting Services must be visible and accessible to the outside world (web-visible) unless they are needed to operate the website of which they form part; We reserve the right to delete files or directories that are not web-visible without giving notice to you. Furthermore, if your website is hacked we would disable your website and ask that you remove all files from your web hosting account and then you would have to restore from your backup. If you had backed up to the same server, you would not then have a copy to restore from.
[/Info_Box]If you have any questions or queries regarding backups or restoring from backups, please review the help files via your control panel before contacting us.