Backups: your website's last line of defence

Things go wrong more often than you think

Every website will eventually face a bad day. A plugin update breaks the layout. A team member deletes the wrong page. A hosting server fails. Ransomware encrypts every file. Without a good backup, any of these can mean days of downtime or losing years of content and customer data.

With the right backup plan, the same problems become a short inconvenience. You restore yesterday's version and carry on.

What you need to back up

A website is more than the files you see. To restore it fully you need every part.

• The website files: code, themes, plugins and configuration.
• The database: pages, products, orders, users and settings.
• Uploaded media such as images, videos and documents.
• Server settings, environment variables and DNS records.
• Email accounts, if your email is hosted with your website.

Follow the 3 2 1 rule

The 3 2 1 rule is a simple and proven backup strategy. Keep three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy stored offsite in a different location.

For a website this might mean the live site, a daily backup stored by your host and another copy in a separate cloud storage service like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. If your host has a major problem or your account is compromised, the offsite copy is still safe.

Protect backups from ransomware

Modern ransomware actively searches for backups and tries to encrypt or delete them too. If your backups are stored with the same login as your website, one stolen password can destroy everything.

Use separate credentials for backup storage and turn on immutable or versioned backups, which cannot be changed or deleted for a set period. Encrypt backups so the data stays private even if the storage is accessed.

Automate and schedule

Manual backups get forgotten, usually right before they are needed. Schedule automatic backups instead. Most business websites should back up the database at least daily and the full site at least weekly. Busy online stores may need backups every hour.

Keep several older versions rather than only the latest one. Some problems, like a hidden malware infection, may go unnoticed for weeks and you will need a clean copy from before it started.

Test your restore

A backup you have never restored is only a hope. Every few months, restore a full copy of your website to a test environment. Check that pages load, images appear, forms work and the data is complete.

Write down the steps and note how long the restore takes. When a real emergency happens, you will know exactly what to do and how quickly you can be back online.

Make it part of your routine

Backups are not exciting, but they are one of the most valuable investments you can make in your website. At ScaleB, every website we manage includes automatic offsite backups and regular restore tests, so our clients never have to worry about losing their work.