There are numerous things you can do to keep your website secure, ranging from selecting a reputable web host to employing a strong password. However, the most important step you can take is to perform website backups.
A recent backup of your website can come in handy in a variety of situations.
If you lose important data or your website is hacked, having a backup on hand can solve your problems.
In this article, we’ll go over the reasons why it is important to back up your website either regularly or frequently.
However, before we get started, let us discuss website backup.
What is website backup?
A backup of your website is a copy of all important files saved to an external source. It includes:
Core files
Themes and plugins
Configuration files
Database
Other valuable information
A backup is a primary guarantee that your website can be completely restored in the event of a problem or crash.
A site backup is useful if you accidentally delete important elements, a theme, or a plugin, or if your website is hacked.
Thus, backing your website is extremely important, due to various reasons. Let’s look at the reasons together.
Reasons to perform a website backup
Backing up everything may appear to be a tedious task, but website backups can save your life. Backups of your website serve as a precautionary measure.
They are the crucial piece of security that is required if all other resources fail.
List down below are some reasons which make website backup a crucial task.
Protect against Human Error:
Everyone makes mistakes now and then. You could delete an important file from your website or make a change that breaks the functionality of a website. However, there are methods for correcting such errors, but few, in our experience, are as effective as restoring a previous backup.
For instance, consider the possibility that a single portion of your website is no longer operational. You have two choices now:
a) Identify the issue and look for a solution
b) Restore the most recent backup of your website and move on.
Depending upon the severity of the problem, the first method can be quick and time-consuming. The second approach, on the other hand, allows you to get your site up and running quickly.
This shows that backups can save you if you or your colleague makes a mistake on your website.
Keep away problems during updates:
It is crucial to keep your website up to date to ensure smooth functionality. Similarly, it’s very common to update your site regularly to see if anything out of ordinary is happening.
However, this does not prevent you from making changes to your website.
Instead, you should safely do them.
Preferably, you must set an automatic backup system for your website. As a result, if you update any of the key components, you’ll a recent restore point to fall back on.
Prevents data loss:
Assume you have a blog with hundreds of posts and someone on your team accidentally deletes one or more of them.
Keeping a backup system is one of the most important reasons to ensure that your data is safe, even in situations like the one described above.
Thus, it is necessary to have a complete backup of your website, as well as of your personal data.
Protect against Hackers:
There may also be times when attackers attempt to directly access your site to deface it or steal information. If someone manages to compromise an account with administrative privileges, they may change its credentials to lock you out of your site.
This should not happen if you take the necessary precautions. Thus, it is important to have two-factor authentication enabled on your website.
However, there are three alternatives, such as:
Attempt to regain access to your account via email
Enquire with your web hosting provider for assistance
Restore a backup using your hosting control panel.
The first option may not always be effective because attackers are most likely to change the email address associated with the account.
If you use reputable a web host, the company should be able to assist you, but it may take some time.
Restoring a backup, on the other hand, can help you quickly regain control of your website. After that, you can update your credentials to ensure that attackers are locked out.
Make it simple to develop a testing version of your website:
When making significant changes to your website, the safest way to do so is to use a testing environment. This way, if something goes wrong during or after the update, it won't impact on your live website.
This will necessitate the use of a staging site. There are several approaches you can take to make one, and they are all fairly simple. Furthermore, having a recent backup of your site means you can set up a staging copy in minutes.
Get Rid of Malware Infections:
Many people believe malware is only capable of wreaking havoc on personal computers. However, a surprising number of websites are infected with malware, and many more are vulnerable to it.
Even if you take precautions to secure your website, attackers have sophisticated techniques at their disposal. Also, keep in mind that even smaller, lesser-known websites are vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Malware troubleshooting can be especially difficult because it's difficult to tell when your site is completely clean. So, if you don't identify and patch the security "hole" that allowed the infection to infiltrate your system, you'll remain vulnerable. Having a backup ready to go will allow you to clean up your website more quickly.
Ensure an Uninterrupted Revenue Flow:
If you make money from your website, you must ensure that it is always available. Every minute it isn't working costs you money.
If you own a small business, you probably don't have to deal with those kinds of figures. That means it's even more important not to miss out on any potential earnings because of website issues. An hour or a day's lost income can be devastating to any business.
As previously stated, troubleshooting unexpected problems from scratch can take a long time. On the other hand, if you can restore a backup, you'll be able to get your website back up and running quickly.
Conclusion:
When it comes to digital security, one of the most common pieces of advice is “take a backup.” “If you backup your website on a regular basis, you will have a quick fix if something goes wrong.”
Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/website-security/239/reasons-why-it-s-important-to-perform-a-website-backup
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