Backing Up Your WordPress Website
Why Should You Back Up Your Blog?
A WordPress blog can be a highly valuable asset to your business. Not only can it be used to create a free advertising platform, but a well-written blog can also be used to attract and retain customers. Having a blog that is both informative and entertaining can also open up additional monetisation opportunities for your business.
These are all great reasons to back up your WordPress blog. However, like with any other valuable business asset, security is an important consideration. That is why it is advisable to take the time to back up your blog on a regular basis. When it comes to securing your business’ important assets — such as your website and email servers — regular backups are one of the best security measures you can take.
How Often Should You Back Up Your WordPress Blog?
The answer to this question really depends on you. As a general rule of thumb, you should make sure to back up your blog on a weekly basis. This gives you the best of both worlds: you get to enjoy the benefits of a rapidly evolving platform while also ensuring that you are not left in the lurch if something were to happen to your blog. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that you have nightly backups — either through a software tool or manual processes — as this ensures that you will always be able to recover from most eventualities.
What Should You Back Up?
Like with any other important business asset, there is a wide variety of data that you could potentially back up when it comes to your WordPress blog. It is best to think of what you need to back up and simply do it:
- The latest version of WordPress
- The database (also known as “the girl with the curls”)
- The images used in your posts
- All your site’s content
- The comments section
- Your email addresses used for commenting (if you have any)
Once you have made sure that these items are safely backed up, it is best to simply restore your blog to its previous state: this way, you will not risk losing any of your data in the event of a crash or server malfunction.
Restore Your Blog From Backup Once A Week
As we mentioned above, it is important to regularly back up your WordPress blog. When it comes to restoring your blog from backup, it is best to do this as soon as possible. This way you will not risk any data loss due to a corrupt database or files belonging to other users.
If you are using WordPress’ built-in tools for backing up your blog, they will automatically perform a restoration every week. However, if you are using a 3rd party tool for backing up your blog, you will have to restore it manually once a week. This is a simple process that involves connecting to your blog’s hosting servers and replacing the files that were backed up. For more information on how to restore your blog from backup, check out our guide on how to do it correctly.
In case you ever do lose some content due to a corruption or hacker attack, you can use the ‘Recent Comments’ widget to bring back all the comments that have been made on your blog. Just click the ‘Reset’ button next to ‘Recent Comments’ and it will take you to the site’s main comments page.
Secure Your WordPress Blog With A Private Key
A WordPress blog can be secured with a private key rather than a password. This is done by simply including the plugin ‘Htaccess‘ and adding the following lines to your wp-config.php file:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+?)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.+$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.+$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.+$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ (band name).com/$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ (band name).com/$1 [L]There are a few things to note about these lines of code above:
- They should be placed at the very end of your wp-config.php file.
- They are used to secure your WordPress blog using a private key instead of a password.
- The (band name) in the above code snippet represents the name of your blog. For example, let’s say that you have a blog called ‘The Accidental Drifter‘ you would replace ‘The Accidental Drifter‘ with ‘The_Accidental_Drifter‘ in the above code snippet.
- Finally, the above code snippet tells WordPress that any requests that come from the ‘(band name)‘ domain should be served using the ‘(band name)‘ blog rather than the main website for your band.
Now that you have added this line of code to your WordPress blog, you will have to go back and forth between your staging and production environments to make sure that your blog functions as expected. When this is done, save this file as config.php and you are good to go.
Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Even though we live in a world where safety and security are at the forefront of everyone’s mind, it is still best to take additional precautions when it comes to your business’ valuable assets. Two-factor authentication is a great way of adding an extra layer of security to your website. It is a simple concept that involves requiring an additional step (usually a code or special sequence of taps) in addition to a username and password to log in to your website or other online accounts. The two factors added here represent two different methods of authentication. This way if someone were to get hold of your login credentials (usernames and passwords) they would not be able to access your account without also having access to your mobile device or computer. The fact that there is a code involved adds an extra layer of security that makes two-factor authentication a valuable addition to your blog’s security arsenal.
Keep Your Mobile Devices, Laptops And Calculators Away From Your Blog
If you are writing this blog from your phone then there are a few things you can do to prevent any damage or theft. First of all, you should change the name of your blog. This will change the address that the browser displays when viewed from a mobile device. You should also turn off automatic downloads on your mobile device — this way you will not risk having your workbook, presentation, or other files stolen by a hacker. Finally, you should remove any applications that you do not need from your phone’s app store, as they could contain sensitive information or be used to access your device and its contents without your knowledge.
Use A Virtual Private Network (VPN) To Secure Your Internet Connection
A VPN connection can help to secure your internet connection by encrypting all the data that is exchanged between your PC and the web. All websites and online accounts that you interact with on a daily basis (like Google, YouTube and Twitter) will be encrypted, which means that only you and the website you are connecting to will have the ability to read the data. Your ISP (your internet service provider, such as Verizon or Comcast) will not have access to any of your personal online activity or content.
Encrypting your internet connection can be a great way of protecting yourself from hackers or other online criminals. If you are looking for an easy-to-use VPN, then look no further than PIA, which is a free service that was designed with the security enthusiast in mind.