How Often Do You Need To Take A WordPress Backup ?
March 10th, 2016 Tags: 
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For many people taking a WordPress backup is a tedious job. Though with a decent backup system it can involve clicking just one button. But of course you have to remember to log into your site, backup the entire site and download the file.
I'm going to assume that you understand the need for having a WordPress backup regime. So that you are backing up your WordPress site frequently.
But really how often do you need to be backing up your site?
WordPress Backup Frequency
The easy answer to that is that you should be backing up your site as often as you update it. How often do you update it? That is how often you should backup.
If you update daily, backup daily. If you update monthly, backup monthly. If it's somewhere in the middle, then decide whether you're going to backup either weekly or monthly.
But make sure that you always backup before and after an upgrade to your WordPress software or before making a major change to your website.
How Often Do You Update Your Blog?
Go back and look at your blog posts and find out how often you update your site. I know people at first will often start updating their WordPress blog on a daily, or even more frequently than daily, basis. Then they'll run out of ideas or they'll run out of content and then die down to perhaps once per month or once a week of updating.
With my blog I normally update it about once per week. Just make it part of your routine and maybe even after making any posts, click the button and backup your blog. That way if the worst happens you at least have everything up until you're more recent blog post.
This presupposes you have a backup plugin paid for, installed and configured.
You might have a multi author site or might update on an irregular basis and if that is your situation I would highly recommend that you add a recurring reminder to your calendar.
Set your reminder either on every Monday morning or the first of every month put an exact time where you're supposed to log into your blog, click the backup and save it somewhere safe. Trust me, you'll thank me if anything goes wrong with your WordPress blog at some point.
When Else Should I Take a WordPress Backup?
In addition to these weekly or monthly backups, be sure to back up your site both before and after an upgrade to WordPress itself. It doesn't happen often, but every now and then, when you upgrade your WordPress software, backup. That way, if a few little things go wrong and if your blog is completely trashed at least you have that backup.
Even if you're not updating, you might be about to make a major change to your blog. For example you may be changing the theme, changing the navigation or changing the content around. In these cases it can't hurt to make one simple backup before anything is touched.
I've been in a situation where I've broken my WordPress blog. I changed too many things and broke it. Then I needed to spend some time carefully updating the WordPress code to recover the site. It would have been much easier to just take a backup, then I'd have a known state to go back to.
WordPress Backup Frequency Summary
Always take a WordPress backup before and after you upgrade and when you make a major change to your site. In addition make it part of your weekly or monthly routine. And remember to back up your blog more often if you update your blog more frequently.
And if you want advice on practical and reliable backup solutions - contact me via my contact form: Contact Alun
CLICK HERE: Discover a New Solution To Keeping Your WordPress Site Up To Date
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