How to Backup and Restore Your WordPress Blog with GoDaddy Managed Hosting
There’s nothing worse than losing a blog post because the computer crashed or it got hit by a ransomware virus. But if you’re using a free blog platform like WordPress.com, you’re ultimately responsible for keeping your content safe and sound.
You also need to be responsible for securing your WordPress website. While there are plenty of free security plugins available, many of them are outdated, and not all of them work effectively with all hosting suppliers. So if you’re looking to protect your blog, the first place you should turn to is the WordPress platform itself.
Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to both back up and restore a database with all of the content on it. So let’s dive into how you can use this useful tool to keep your content safe and sound.
Create a Full Backup
One of the simplest and most useful features of WordPress is the ability to create a full backup of your site and content. The tool itself is quite lightweight and easy to use. Simply access the plugins section from your WordPress dashboard, and you’ll see an option to enable the Backup WordPress plugin. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to click on the Create Full Backup button.
A full backup will save you both time and money in the long run. It’s often useful to rebuild or replace content that gets damaged or lost due to a mishap or virus. So if you decide that this is the case, creating a full backup beforehand will make the process much easier.
Change The Database Password
Since your WordPress database contains sensitive information (your content, comments, and possibly even your email addresses), you should change the password on this database immediately. While you can use the built-in password manager in WordPress to generate random passwords, you should use a different method to remember them because ultimately, you’ll have to enter these passwords manually whenever you need to make changes or additions to your site’s content.
So now that you’ve changed the password for the database, let’s test it by creating a new user and going to the Users page in your WordPress dashboard. If you’ve successfully altered the password for the database, you’ll see a message at the top of the page with the brand new password. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to choose a different, strong password for each of your web accounts, especially your email passwords. This will help prevent hackers from accessing your accounts if they get their hands on your computer.
Take A Quick Test Drive
Once you’ve logged in to your WordPress dashboard as the new user you created earlier, you can take a quick tour of your site to ensure everything is working correctly. To do this, click on the “Visit Blog” button in the upper right corner of your dashboard, and your blog will load in a new window or tab. You can also click on the Post button in the upper right corner of your dashboard to write a new blog post or use the existing one you’ve written previously.
Once you’ve tested your site’s layout, navigation, and content, you can return to your dashboard and click on the “Saved” button. This will take you back to the previous page where you can leave any additional comments or feedback about your experience using the WordPress platform.
Back Up Your Content
Once you’ve successfully launched your blog, you’ll want to make sure its content is backed up regularly. It’s easy to do this with WordPress. Simply log in to your WordPress dashboard, click on the “Sites” link in the menu on the left, and you’ll see a list of your active sites along with a few simple options for each of them. Two of these options are the “On This Server” and “Off This Server” buttons. Enabling the “On This Server” option will host your site content on GoDaddy’s proprietary Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. This will give you additional features and benefits that are specific to AWS environments.
The “Off This Server” option will have your content located on the local server of your WordPress install. These are the steps:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard
- Click on the “Sites” link in the menu on the left
- You’ll see a list of your active sites along with the option to enable either one of them
- Click on the “Off This Server” option
- This will take you to a configuration page where you can choose a new location for your content
- Click on the “Save Changes” button
- Your content will then be saved and hosted on the chosen server
- Repeat these steps for each of your active sites
- When you’re finished, click on the “Dashboard” link in the menu on the left to go back to your WordPress dashboard
Restore A Previous Version Of Your Blog
Suppose you’ve decided that you no longer want to use your current WordPress installation for your blog. You can download all of your content from this blog into a separate folder on your computer, or on the cloud. This will make it much easier to go back to a previous version of your blog if you make a mistake while editing a post or comment, or if the content becomes outdated as the world changes.
To do this, log in to your WordPress dashboard, click on the “Sites” link in the menu on the left, and you’ll see a list of your active sites along with a few simple options for each of them. Two of these options are the “On This Server” and “Off This Server” buttons. Enabling the “On This Server” option will host your site content on GoDaddy’s proprietary AWS platform. This will give you additional features and benefits that are specific to AWS environments. A unique feature of GoDaddy Managed Hosting is how it keeps a backup of your content in the cloud, so even if your website is down for some time, your content will still be available when you log back in. This is one service that you can’t live without if you’re a blogger.
The “Off This Server” option will have your content located on the local server of your WordPress install. These are the steps: