Imagine waking up to find your WordPress website has vanished—posts, pages, images, and settings, all gone. Whether it’s due to a hacked server, a failed plugin update, or a hosting provider snafu, disasters happen. That’s why having a reliable backup strategy is crucial. But here’s the twist: relying solely on ONE backup can still leave you vulnerable. It’s time to think beyond the basics and back up your backup.
Why Backups Aren’t Always Enough
Many WordPress site owners assume that if they have a backup plugin or their hosting provider includes backups, they’re set. Yet, countless horror stories prove otherwise.
- Your hosting provider’s backups might be corrupted.
- The backups could be outdated or missing entire files.
- You may not have access to them during a critical moment.
Backing up your backup acts as a double safety net. It ensures that when the unexpected happens, you have not one—but multiple—ways to bounce back quickly.
Understanding the Backup Hierarchy
To create a truly foolproof disaster recovery system, you need to follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups:
- 3 Total Copies: One primary, plus two backups.
- 2 Different Formats: For example, one on your hosting account and another on an external cloud service.
- 1 Offsite Copy: In case your local or hosted environments are compromised.
This strategy ensures you can restore your WordPress site from multiple points, even if one or two methods fail.
Brilliant Tools That Can Help
It’s easier than ever to automate and diversify your backups with a range of reliable tools. Here are a few tried-and-true favorites among WordPress users:
- UpdraftPlus: Backs up to remote cloud services like Dropbox, Amazon S3, and Google Drive. It also allows for easy one-click restoration.
- BlogVault: Offers real-time backups, and stores encrypted copies offsite. It’s especially popular among WooCommerce users.
- ManageWP: Ideal for agencies or users managing multiple sites. Includes backup scheduling, cloud storage integrations, and automated recovery.
Most of these services can be set to regularly copy backups to multiple locations, effectively backing up your backups.
Cloud Is Your Best Friend
Cloud storage has drastically changed how we think about disaster recovery. By storing backups in services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3, you’re ensuring that even if your local or web hosting environment crashes, a clean copy of your website exists in a secure, offsite location.
Better still, many tools now allow you to set rules like:
- Keep the last 30 backups only (saves space).
- Send every Nth backup copy to a secondary cloud location.
- Trigger a backup every time a WordPress plugin is updated.
Such granular control guarantees that your sites are both secure and up-to-date.
Manual Backups Still Have a Role
Don’t underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned manual backup. Especially before making significant changes—like updating themes or switching web hosts—manually downloading both your files and database ensures you have a local copy you can directly control.
This backup should ideally be stored on an external hard drive or encrypted USB key. Though not automated, it’s an added level of assurance that takes only a few extra minutes.
Disaster Recovery Doesn’t Stop at Backups
Once your backup system is airtight, take recovery a step further:
- Document your recovery steps: Know exactly how to restore your site. Even better, write it down.
- Test restores regularly: A backup is only good if it actually works. Schedule test restores quarterly.
- Create user roles wisely: Limit admin access to reduce human error risks.
Planning before a disaster strikes will save you time, money, and a ton of stress later on.
A Backup of a Backup = Peace of Mind
The digital world is increasingly unpredictable. Whether it’s software bugs, cyberattacks, or just a mistyped line of code, things go wrong. But when they do, having a chain of reliable backups means that recovery isn’t a gamble—it’s a guarantee.
So back up your WordPress site. Then double up and back up your backup. Because peace of mind is priceless.