How to Backup Your WordPress Websites in 2023

Introduction

Good day everyone, welcome to our website. In today’s article, we will be talking about how you can back up your WordPress websites. When it comes to backing up your WordPress websites, you have two main options: manual or automated backups.

Types of WordPress Backup

The following are the two types of WordPress backup:

1. Manual Backups

With manual backups, you download your entire WordPress websites and database to your own computer. The major benefit here is that you have full control over what gets backed up and when. However, manual backups require you to actually remember to download your files on a regular basis. If you forget or get too busy, you could lose data in the event of an issue. Manual backups are good for tech-savvy users, but they do require ongoing time and effort.

2. Automated Backups

Automated backup services handle the entire backup process for you on an automated schedule. They back up your WordPress files, database, plugins, themes, images, and more. The major pros here are convenience and reliability. You set it up once, and automated backups just happen on the schedule you choose. If anything goes wrong with your site, your backup service has you covered.

The following are some popular automated backup options for WordPress websites:

• UpdraftPlus: Free plugin, that backs up to cloud storage, FTP, and email
• BlogVault: Paid service, that backs up the entire site and stores for 30 days
• BackupBuddy: Paid plugin, that backs up to Dropbox, FTP, Google Drive, and more
• Codeguard: Paid service, backs up entire site and stores for 1 year

The Best WordPress Backup Plugins in 2023

The following are the best WordPress backup plugins to use in 2023:

1. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is one of the most popular backup plugins for WordPress with over 2 million active installs. It’s free to download and it allows you:

• Schedule automated backups
• Backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and more
• Restore or migrate your site with one click
• Get email notifications when backups complete

2. BackupBuddy

If you want advanced backup features, you can go for BackupBuddy for $80, you get:

• Daily backup scheduling
• Backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, FTP, and your own server
• Migrate or restore your site anytime
• Get back up reports sent to your email
• Clone your site to a staging environment

3. BlogVault

BlogVault is an automated real-time backup solution specifically tailored for WordPress websites.

For $49 per year, you can get:

• Real-time backups as you post (no lag time!)
• Daily backup scheduling
• Restore to any point in time with one click
• Migrate your site anytime
• Get digest reports on backup activity
• 10GB+ of storage space

BlogVault is a great set-it-and-forget-it option if you want peace of mind that your entire site is always backed up and ready to restore at a moment’s notice.

How to Manually Backup WordPress Websites (Including Database)

The following are step-by-step guides to manually backup your WordPress websites:

1. Export Your WordPress Content

The first step is to export your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, and media files from your WordPress admin. Go to Tools → Export and select ‘All content‘ to download an XML file containing your entire WordPress content. Save this export file to your computer.

2. Backup Your WordPress Database

1. Log into your hosting account and locate your database admin tool, like phpMyAdmin.
2. Select your WordPress database from the list. The name usually starts with ‘wp_‘.
3. Choose ‘Export‘ or ‘Backup‘ to download a .sql file of your database.
4. Save the .sql file to your computer with your XML content export.

3. Download Your WordPress Installation Files

• The wp-content folder which contains your themes, plugins, and uploads
• The wp-includes folder
• wp-admin folder
• .htaccess file
• index.php file

4. Restoring Your WordPress Websites Backup

1. Upload the wp-content, wp-includes, and wp-admin folders and files to your hosting
2. Import the .sql database backup file using your database tool
3. Import the XML content export file using the WordPress importer tool
4. Update any references to the previous site URL in the database to your new site URL

READ ALSO- How to Create a YouTube Channel in 2023

Conclusion

Manual backups ensure you have copies of your WordPress data stored locally and give you peace of mind that you can restore your site if anything goes wrong in the future. Performing regular manual WordPress website backups is one of the most important things you can do as a site owner. Htoe hope you enjoyed this article. Please do well to always visit our website for more updates like this.