Having a backup for your site is very important. It can help you in fixing vulnerabilities and recover your data in case of a disaster. But you should always find secure ways to keep your data safe and have a safe backup method. You most certainly put a lot of time and struggle into developing your website, creating your brand, and constructing your reputation among people, so you need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Offsite backup is one of the safest ways of backing your website up. Very few people have a secure website backup in times like these, where everything has been moved to the online realm. We want you to be one of them.
Offsite backup means securing a copy of your website to a different location (server) from your original website, just like a spare key in case of a crisis. Let us first see why backing up is necessary.
Why should you have a backup for your website?
A simple script error could make you lose your website and all the important files along with it. You can lose all of your data and important files within a couple of seconds. To avoid this fate, site backup is necessary. In addition to this, website backup will come handy in case of cyber attacks like malware, faulty updates, or because of the slightest negligence. You will have peace of mind when your site is safely backed up. It is noteworthy that you are responsible for backing up your site, not your hosting providers.
How can you back up your site?
There are a few main options to create a backup of your site, which are as follows:
- By using a web host solution and downloading a copy to your computer.
- If available, you can use the cPanel feature to create a copy.
- Manually download the FTP files from your directory to your computer.
- You can use a third-party app to create a backup.
- You can also create a backup in your cloud storage. Some third-party plugins for WordPress will do this automatically for you.
If you are using a CMS like WordPress, make sure that the backup option you select backs up core files along with your site’s database.
Why is offsite backup a safe option?
Let us try to understand the answer to this question with a simple analogy. Suppose you have locked all your wealth in a locker and made a spare key in case you lose the original one. Will you carry it in the same wallet or purse as the original key, or will you keep it in a safe place separate from the original one; in case anything happens to the original one, you will be able to fetch the spare key and unlock the locker. I believe you will also prefer the latter option. The same is the situation with your website and its backup copy. It is always safe to create a backup at a different place than the real website so that if anything goes wrong with your live website, either it gets hacked or shut down for some reason, your backup copy will not be affected by it all. The hackers would not be able to access it. You can use the backup copy to gain access back or to fix the problem that has caused your real website to shut down.
For this simple reason, I believe you will prefer the option of creating a backup on a separate server and be prepared for any worst-case scenario. This will also give you confidence in yourself, and you will not have to worry about things that can be avoided by creating a backup at separate locations.