If you think your website is safely backed up by your hosting provider, think again!
We all understand how important having a back-up of your website is. Ironically, even the people who don’t maintain a current back-up still know how important it is!
However, unless you have a specific plan in place that you’re paying extra for, web hosting companies, even the most respected in the industry, aren’t responsible for backing up your website. Check out the Terms & Conditions of most hosting companies and you’ll find clauses like this –
“You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to regularly backup all your content in order to prevent potential data loss.”
Even when you pay for a separate back-up service you still may not be fully covered…“If you purchase Backup Services from us, you acknowledge and agree that due to technical reasons a backup copy may not be available for restore upon your request.”… which is when you’re going to need it most!
The above examples were taken from actual T&C pages on reputable web hosting sites.
Here are some other questions to be considered with “catch-all” back-up plans that are added to your hosting account –
Availability: Some will only back-up your site automatically if it’s within their website size limit.
Coverage: WordPress websites consist of both databases and files. It’s important to know exactly what’s being backed up and whether you have access to it all.
Frequency: How often your site needs to be backed up varies. If your hosting provider only takes a backup once a week, you could lose important data if your site crashes.
Storage: While the backup of your site might be regular, do they store multiple versions? Are the backups they do store encrypted to avoid the site being tampered with in the case of a security breach at their end.
This is in no way an indictment on web hosting companies. However, much of the confusion stems from what each party understands a back-up to be, and why it’s made.
Your host makes back-ups for their convenience, not yours. Most websites are maintained on shared hosting equipment. In this situation your website runs on a web server alongside dozens and even hundreds of other sites. You share the server resources like memory, internet connections, CPU etc.
In most cases, the host makes back-ups not of each website, but only of their own infrastructure settings, so these can be easily restored should anything go wrong. It’s up to individual website owners to make and maintain copies of their own sites.
Sadly, the assumption that your website is being safely backed up by your hosting provider is held by the vast majority of small to medium businesses, and is one that will leave you entirely exposed at the worst possible time!
Conclusion
Having a specialist, high-end backup solution in place, optimised for your WordPress website is fundamental. Once it’s set up, you can stop worrying about losing your site’s data and get on with the important job of growing your business.
Partner with webmax365, invest in the Security and Performance Plan that best meets your needs, and we’ll make sure your site is available 24/7, without problems, without interruptions, and always looking fantastic!