Having designed and built many WordPress websites, we have found that once the new site is handed off to our client, the one thing that is neglected the most is the task of backing up and updating WordPress.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve logged into a site to find an extremely old version of WordPress running, and multiple outdated plugins. I also see no evidence of the site being backed up.
Backing up your local hard drive on your computer is no different in concept to backing up your website. If your hard drive crashes, at least you have a backup. Now, it may not crash too often, but the reason you backup your files, is for that one time that it does. It’s like an insurance policy.
The same applies to backing up a website. It’s odd that we will invest thousands of dollars on a quality website, spend hours upon hours adding and updating content, but very little thought is given to securing the site in the event of a disaster.
The Reasons We Neglect This Important Step
From what I’ve found in working with clients over the years, the main reason WordPress sites aren’t backed up effectively is due to a lack of the necessary technical knowledge required to make effective backups. It isn’t just the WordPress database that needs to get backed up, and taking it a step further, even if WordPress is backed up, few will know how to restore the site.
WordPress Updates
Another often neglected area is that of keeping WordPress updated. New versions are released on a regular basis. Not only are there feature updates, but security updates too. So it is important to update WordPress to each new version in order to keep your site as secure as can be at the time.
The WordPress Maintenance Program
I created this program to take the hassle out of the update, backup and restoration process. I see this as an “insurance policy” for your WordPress website. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with it, but in the event that something does happen, you are protected in the sense that we will have weekly off-site backups of the website, and will restore it to the original state prior to the data loss.
We also keep WordPress, plugins and theme files updated when new versions are released. If an update breaks the site for some reason, we will fix it. All this is included in the plan.
It’s Not For Everyone
It is important to take the necessary steps to backup the entire website, not just the WordPress database. So too should WordPress be updated regularly, and it is also important to know how to restore the site when needed.
If you are handling this process yourself, then there is no need to sign up for the program. The program is mainly for those of you who don’t know how to backup and restore a WordPress website and/or don’t want to hassle with it.
To find out more, visit the WordPress Maintenance Program page.
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