Call for Backup!

You need a copy of your website. Stat.

When was the last time you backed up your website?

YOU. Not your web developer.

For a lot of people, the answer is "Monthly! See? Here in this plug-in!"

(Anyone else see the problem with this?)

For too many people, the answer is never. Well, let's fix that!

We've talked about backups before and made a general comment about being sure your website is backed up regularly.

This is Backups 2.0.

Your web developer may do regular backups and they may have set a backup at the hosting level as well.

We think it's a good idea for everyone to ALSO have another backup saved "off-system" - completely separate from your hosting and stored outside your site.

Why?

There are lots of reasons.

First, the obvious one: if there's a problem with your site, how can you get into the plug-in to access the backup?

Or, what happens if your web developer closes their business?

What if you and your web person part ways in a "less than friendly" manner? (We had a client whose partner backed up their sites. They split up. It wasn't pretty...)

What if someone helpfully clicked "Upgrade WordPress to latest version" and it didn't go well? (True story....it broke the website and it took many calls to the hosting platform to find a backup version.)

But, far less dramatically.....maybe "detail-oriented you" wants a copy for peace of mind?

Great! Let's go through the major website platforms to help you do your own backup.

When Should You Make a Backup?

We recommend making a copy for yourself every month.

You might want to do it more often if you post blogs more than once a week.

We also suggest you backup your site:

• BEFORE you install a new version of WordPress (remember our client story above?)

• BEFORE a new team member starts working on your site - accidents happen!

• BEFORE you make any big changes

• AFTER you make any big changes (and you know they work)

Off-System Storage

You want to save your backups somewhere that isn't reliant on your website or hosting platform.

We recommend saving your backups in Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. It wouldn't hurt to save a copy on your laptop, too!

1. Backing Up a WordPress Site

If you have a WordPress site, you likely have a plug-in that is making backups for you. We like to use Updraft Plus - it's free and connects easily to external storage locations.

NOTE: If you don't know if you have a back-up plugin on your site, check the list of installed plugins and check with your developer. (We do NOT want you installing rogue backup plug-ins, making your webmaster mad at us...)

We'll show you how that one works here, as it will be very similar to many of the other free plugins you can get.

When you open the plugin, you should see a notice about when the next scheduled backup will take place.

You should also be able to see the various backups available on your site.

Updraft has a helpful blue button to quickly restore a backup.

For most plugins, you'll want to go to the Settings area.

If no backups are scheduled, set a schedule. Then, scroll down looking to connect the plugin to "remote storage".

Click on the option, and the plugin will walk you through the steps needed to sign into your storage account.

You'll likely be given options to choose which elements of your site you want to include in the back up. We like to choose all of them, but that's up to you!

2. Squarespace

This one isn't as straightforward. Squarespace is a proprietary system and they run regular backups for you. It's in their best interest to have regular backups so that your site is always current and live, and there is no formal way to make a backup.

But, as with anything, there are ways around it; a detailed way and a quick way.

Quick way:

Duplicate your site inside Squarespace. Click the three dots next to your website on the main Squarespace dashboard and select "Duplicate".

There! You have a backup.

BUT......it's still inside Squarespace. It's not saved "off-system".

AND....it needs to be done every two weeks. Sometimes Squarespace will leave these "non-active" sites up longer, but it's a good idea to check.

⭐⭐ An extra (but very useful step):

Regardless of whether you're doing the quick way or the detailed way, it's a good idea to backup any custom CSS that is used on your site.

(Yes, we KNOW it's annoying, but you never know when you might need it. Maybe do this every 6 months or anytime your webmaster has made major edits?)

Scroll to the bottom of the left side menu and open up the "Custom Code" option. Open up "Custom CSS" and copy the code to somewhere "off-system".

You may also want to check each of your main pages to see if any code was added to the Headers or Footers. You'll need to navigate to each of the main pages, open up "Custom Code" and choose "Code Injection".

The detailed way:

The bad news is that Squarespace doesn't have a great way to backup your site outside the platform.

You have to go through a lot of steps to get the full site details. Consider doing this every 6 months?

We recommend this great blog by Kate Scott. She gives you 8 steps to make sure you have every element of your site accessible.

3. Wix

Similar to Squarespace, Wix is a proprietary system and you need to McGyver a solution.

ALSO similar to Squarespace, you can duplicate your site. From the Wix dashboard choose "Site Actions" and then "Duplicate Site". Rename it to the date you made the copy.

Most of the suggestions above by Kate Scott for Squarespace also apply here - screenshots, keep an extra copy of content etc.

Side note: Proprietary systems like to keep their info.....well, proprietary. And by "their info" we mean "anything you've uploaded to them". There are definite pros to having a Wix and Squarespace site vs a WordPress site, but this is one of the cons.

4. GoDaddy

If you've built your site in GoDaddy, you can use the WordPress steps above or do it straight from your main GoDaddy page.

Once you've signed in, go to your product page. Choose "Website Security and Backups", and then "Manage All".

Look for the Backups column and choose the red caution sign. (Why they made it a caution sign is beyond us....but it's OK to click this time.) Set a backup date.

Select Download Backup, choose the option to download (we recommend Download all) and choose "Start Download".

GoDaddy will create a .zip file of your website and assets. Download it, and save it off-system!

A reassuring note: If any of the technology elements above worry you, your webmaster will be happy to help you. (Maybe don't mention the breakup story....)

So that's it.

Quick ways, detailed ways, and the WordPress way.

Now that you have your backup, you can rest easier, knowing that you can restore or rebuild your site in case of emergency!