Automatic backups in WordPress are essential if you want to protect your website from data loss. A plugin error, hacking attempt, or server crash can happen at any time. Without a recent backup, restoring your website becomes stressful and complicated. That’s why setting up scheduled backups should be one of the first steps after launching your site.

Thankfully, automatic backup in WordPress is an ease. As soon as you set it up, your website will backup yourselves without any manual effort.

It is all described step by step.

Why Automatic Backups in wordpress Are Important

Your WordPress site contains files, themes, images, database and Plugins. The database also stores your comments, posts, pages, and other settings that you have on it. If any of this goes missing, it will be a pain to get the content back.

With automatic backups:

• You always have a recent copy of your website at all points
• You make hard drives more resistant to never being able to recover data.
• You can get your site back up rather quickly.

So, you become assured and confident.

Method 1: Use a Backup Plugin

A very simple way to automate your backups is by using a plugin. Usually, this process takes just a couple of minutes.

Option 1: UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is one of the most trusted WordPress backup plugins.

Step 1: Install and Activate

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then:

• Go to Plugins → Add New
• Search for “UpdraftPlus”
• Click Install
• Activate the plugin

Once turned on, you will find it on Settings.

Step 2: Set Backup Schedule

Then, Load Settings -> UpdraftPlus Backups.
Now click on the Settings tab.

Here, you can choose how often backups run:

• Files: Weekly or Daily
• Database: Daily is recommended

If you update your website very frequently like weekly or daily, then daily backups are more safe.

Step 3: Choose Remote Storage

While it is possible to keep backups on your server, this is not recommended. In the event that your server crashes you could lose your backups.

Instead, connect to cloud storage such as:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Amazon S3

Subsequently, select your option and proceed to Execute the connection and save changes.

Subsequently, the backups will be enabled.

Option 2: Jetpack

Real time backups can be purchased through Jetpack, a paid feature. Real time backups means that whenever changes are made to the site they are immediately saved rather than just on a schedule.

Therefore, this option is ideal for:

• E commerce stores
• Membership sites
• Blogs that are regularly revised

But, needs to go through subscription plan.

Option 3: BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy costs money. Besides scheduled backups it supports migration and uploading to the cloud.

For these reasons, it is more favored by many developers and agencies.

Method 2: Use Hosting Backups

A lot of hosting providers offer automatic backups in their plans. They are mostly daily.

To check this:

• Sign in to your host control panel
• Search for Backup or Restore options
• Review how many days of backups are saved

Although hosting backups are very convenient, it is advisable to keep a local copy as well. This ensures that one is still safe if the hosting account has some problem.

How Often Should You Back Up Your Site?

What backup schedule is right for you, really depends on how much your site is accessed.

For example:

• A static business website: Weekly backup
• A regularly updated blog: Daily backup
• An online store: Daily, or real time backup, is a good backup.

Basically, it is always good to keep 7 to 14 backup copies.

Where Should You Store Backups?

For maximum safety, store backups:

• On cloud storage
• Outside the main server of your web host
• In more than one place if possible

This additional barrier has greatly reduced the risk.

How to Restore Your Website

Normally it is easily restored if anything goes wrong.

For example, in UpdraftPlus:

1. Go to Existing Backups
2. Select the backup version
3. Click Restore
4. Confirm your selection

Your site will be back to normal in a matter of minutes.

Common Backup Mistakes to Avoid

Website owners often make small mistakes that cause disastrous problems in the future.

For instance:

• Backups stored only on the same server
• Never test the restore process
• Backing up files without the database.
• Not seting a schedule properly

Always test your backup at least once.

Final Thoughts

Automatic backups are among the most critical steps in WordPress maintenance. It can wipe out months or years of work with just one malfunction.

However, after you configure automatic backups, your site will be more secured. In the time of a couple minutes, you will be able to ensure that it is protected permanently.

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