Backing Up Your Site
It’s important to always keep current backups up your site. If your hosting account has a cPanel similar to ANA’s cPanel, it’s extremely easy to do.
Manual file backup:
- In your hosting account cPanel, under the Files menu, click on File Manager
- Double click on or check the box next to any folder you want to backup
- Click on the “Compress” icon from the top menu
- Select “zip archive” and do not change the destination directory (this sends the backup to the directory you’re currently in)
- Click on “make archive”
- Once your file is compressed, a message will come up showing it as completed, then you can close that box
- Now locate your compressed file in your directory, then double click on it to save the file to your computer
- Individual files can be backed up by simply double clicking on the file name to download it to your computer
- Save as many folders as you want using this method
Once you’ve downloaded the compressed file(s), delete in in your file manager by checking the box next to it, then click on the “delete” icon near the top of the page. Leaving backups on the server is a security risk for your site so please do not omit this step.
For database-driven sites, such as WordPress, you also need to backup your database(s). Your site’s database contains vital information. In WordPress, for example, your database contains all your posts, pages, and comments.
To backup your database, take the following steps:
- in cPanel, click Backups
- Click on the backup type(s) you’d like to make. In this case, locate your database from the list
- Select a destination on your PC for where you would like to save it
- Click Save
- It will then start to download
You can also make backups of your home directory using the same method. However, I don’t always trust these backups. Depending on the size of your site, the backup could fail. I recommend manually backing up important site files.
While most hosting companies make periodic backups of all sites on their servers, these backups are usually not guaranteed and it may require a fee and/or lots of time to get your site restored.
It’s your responsibility as a website owner to make periodic backups of your website. For your own peace of mind.