WordPress Blogging

After hearing all of the reasons why it is important to back up your blog, you have finally decided that it’s a good idea, in fact, a great idea, to back up your WordPress blog.

Now, in the event anything goes wrong you have a copy somewhere you can use to recover your blog.

What features should you look for in a WordPress backup plugin?

I’ve seen many plugins that overload you with features. At the end of the day do you need all that fanciness or do you just need a backup plugin that simply works?

If you are looking for a backup plugin, find one that is easy to use, that can actually restore and it can also clone your site somewhere else.

What’s the point in having the best backup plugin in the world if you can’t use it if you don’t know what to do?

Check out the plugins that are available, both free and paid versions.

Find one that shows screenshots or videos of the plugin in action.

Do you have to go through a ten-step process, do you have to confirm every step of the way, or do you have easy-to-follow steps for your WordPress blog to be safely backed up?

You should never make just make one backup of your site. You should ideally make a backup of your site at least once a month, if not several times a month, and it shouldn’t be a chore. 

Make sure your backup plugin is easy to use.

Next, make sure that your backup can actually restore.

It sounds silly for me to say that your backup plugin should also restore. But you’d be surprised at how many WordPress plugins simply don’t work or are out of date.

What you should do is install a backup plugin and immediately take a backup. Then go and install a new blog and see if you can restore that same blog somewhere else.

You’d be surprised at how many backup plugins won’t restore.

You might be diligently and obediently backing up your site over and over and over every month but if something goes wrong you’re in the same situation as if you had not made a backup.

The backup did not complete successfully.

This brings me to my final point that your backup plugin should also have the ability to clone your site somewhere else.

What’s the difference between restoring and cloning?

Cloning means that you can backup your site on one location and go to a different website or a different folder and put your site in that new place.

All the links, all the information, everything will work just fine.

Why is cloning so important?

Because if you want to restore a site or you might want to restore to a different location. Just to make sure you don’t destroy your original backup (your original site).

Once you can clone sites it means that if you have your site set up exactly the way you want it you can customize your theme, plugins, settings, memberships, all that stuff.

Back it up and restore it or clone it in a new location and now you have saved tons of time for yourself.

Until you have actually cloned a blog, you will have no idea how much time it can save you.

When you’re looking for a WordPress backup plugin make sure it’s one that’s easy to use, that the backups can successfully restore and that you can clone a blog onto other locations.