Back Up Your Website

Backing up your files

The first part of backing up your website is backing up your website folders and files. The easiest way I know how to do this is using an FTP client to log on to your server, and download the files onto your local computer.

Not sure how to do this? Here’s some simple steps.

1. Download and install an FTP client such as Filezilla or SmartFTP or Fetch if your on a Mac
2. Log in to your hosting account and find your FTP login information.  If you can’t find it, you may need to contact technical support at your hosting company to obtain your FTP username and password
3. Open your FTP client and login to your website server using your FTP login information
4. Dowload all the files in the public or www folder on your server onto your computer
5. Be careful not to accidentally delete any files or folders!

If all of this is confusing, consider hiring a professional to do this work for you.  If you alredy have a web designer, they could do this for you and put the files on disk so you have a copy of your website files.

Backing up your Database

Whether you’re using WordPress to run your website, or some other CMS, if you’re using a database to store your data, it’s very important that you periodically back up your database.

This can be very daunting task for some people. However, here is a simple and easy WordPress Database Backup Walkthrough. This page provides instructions on how to back up your database using phpmyadmin (a database program used by many hosts). There are also instructions for using Straight MySQL Commands, as well as MySQL Administrator to back up your database.

It’s important to note that this process can be very dangerous.  If you execute the wrong command, or push the wrong button, you could erase your website data.  Therefore, if you don’t have any experience with this process, consider hiring a professional to do the work for you.

If you’re using WordPress, there are several plugins including WP-DB-Backup, that help make backing up your database easier.

Contact me if you’d like help backing up your website or if you need assistance with other web projects, or if you have questions about this information.