Website Backups: Kinda Boring, But Absolutely Essential
Sometimes the most important thing is the least sexy thing. Such is the case with a website backup, an absolutely critical element in keeping your website functioning exactly how you want it to.
At Formada, we backup our clients’ sites every single day — it’s a standard feature of our website management service, because we know that your business’s website is the cornerstone of your marketing and brand strategies.
You deserve to feel confident that this essential asset is protected if things go wrong, and unfortunately, sometimes things do go wrong.
But just in case you aren’t convinced, or if you’re interested in learning more about what exactly makes regular website backups so important, here are five reasons why regular website backups are essential for your business.
Regular Website Backups Help Prevent Data Loss
It’s no mystery that user data is a key factor in making your digital marketing strategy successful.
Your website can tell you a whole host of things, including:
- Which blog posts are your top performers
- What are the most visited pages on your website
- Where your visitors are coming from, geographically
- Which products or services are most popular, based on purchase history
- What your top performing calls to action are
This information helps you make more informed decisions about where to invest your money and time, ultimately making your business more profitable.
Now imagine all of this data suddenly disappears. Maybe an update caused it. Maybe it was an unintended keystroke. Or worse.
Whatever the case, when you have a fresh backup of your website — which includes your site data — you don’t have to worry about starting from scratch. You’re protected.
A Regular Website Backup Helps Deal With Inevitable Human Error
You might not be surprised to hear that people make mistakes here and there, even with things as important as your website!
We’ve helped clients in the past who have given site access to too many team members at once, resulting in conflicting changes that have disrupted site performance. We’ve also helped businesses whose well-intentioned but inexperienced folks have made site updates that have taken their sites offline. And sometimes experienced people make mistakes, too. They happen!
But the good news is that having your site regularly backed up means these situations aren’t total disasters, they’re only temporary.
Your site is back online, you’ve retrieved your missing content and data, and now you have more time to consider who should have admin access to your website!
A Regular Website Backup Helps When Updates Malfunction
At Formada, we design our websites on the WordPress platform. We believe it’s one of the most flexible and secure options available for building great websites.
But with any website builder, updating your website’s theme and plugins are essential in keeping it functional and secure, as are core updates to your site.
Ironically, sometimes making these updates can cause your website to malfunction. Sometimes data goes missing. Sometimes images don’t render properly. In worst case scenarios, sites disappear altogether!
This often means that there are elements in conflict, but you have a business to run and you need your site online, so until those things can be fixed, you luckily have your most-recent website backup to reference, keeping your site functional and your business profitable.
A Regular Website Backup Helps With Security Issues
Hackers. Malware. Phishing scams. Cloud-based attacks.
Unfortunately, these security issues can happen, even if you’re incredibly careful about website security. They shouldn’t happen. But they can.
This can mean loss of profitability for your company, vulnerability to your customer data, and even loss of control over your site!
Luckily, having a backup of your website means you can quickly take control of your site, get it back online, and take care of any potential security risks in the background while your business continues to serve its customers.
A Regular Website Backup Helps with Website Migration
Sometimes you have to change your website’s hosting service. Maybe you’re not getting the security features with your current vendor that you could with another. Or maybe it’s taking too long for your site to load. Perhaps you’re just looking for a better deal.
Whatever the case may be, you’ve decided to move your website. Now, these are big transitions, and often glitches can occur when you move your website from one host to another.
Remember, you’re not just moving images and words, you’re moving a lot of files — an entire database of information. Things can happen. And they often do.
This is why having a recent backup of your site at the ready can make this transition go from a stressful one to a breeze. You’ve got your entire site in-tact, ready to go in case there is cause for concern. What a relief!
Website Backups Are Just One Part Of A Great Website Experience
As you can see, website backups are an essential part of ensuring your site is functional and profitable. Regular, daily backups are just one part of our Website Management service.
Formada’s Website Management Service also includes:
- Secure hosting — As stated, you get daily backups on safe, secure WordPress servers
- Theme and plugin updates — Your site’s plugins are never out of date!
- Analytics and tracking — User behavior, traffic data, conversion data, and more
- Worry-free updates — Monthly service includes text edits, photo updates, and bug fixes
- Ongoing additions — Maintain a lively, dynamic site with data-driven recommendations!
We believe that websites should be living things, constantly evolving with your business in order to support the goals of your business.
Regularly published content, fresh imagery, time-sensitive offers and timely blogs. These are some of the things that can make your brand stand out by being more relevant to your audience. With services like Website Management, you’ll have more time to focus on making data-driven decisions because you won’t have to worry about rebuilding a lost website!
If you’d like to learn more about how we build, maintain, and grow your website, then contact us today — we’d love to help you achieve your goals!