Why The World Would End if Backups Disappeared

Would your world come crashing down if you lost your website? For any business owner, it is a scene out of a nightmare… you go to grab some information from your website and it isn’t there. Literally, just gone.

You frantically try to log in, you get an error.

You go to your hosting account, the files don’t exist.

The whole thing just vanished.

Unfortunately, this exact situation happened to a client of mine last night. Fortunately, her site was insured… that is, she had me watching over it and making sure that we had backups. And when I’m in charge, those backups are stored in a location other than her hosting account.

The outcome? Her site was back up and running an hour later.

Backups are No Joke

You’ve got insurance on the other stuff in your life like your house and your cars. Sure, most of the time it is required but really, going without it is essentially operating without a net. No one likes to think about having to cope with a disaster or loss, but the reality is that it happens all the time. Same thing with your website.

At this point, it is likely that your website is essential to your business, core to your day-to-day operations. You absolutely don’t want to risk losing it. And… when you do have backups, restoring is a breeze. Even if something catastrophic happens to your web host, you can point your domain to another host and still be up and running in an hour. What is that worth to your business?

Doesn’t My Host Backup My Site?

Maybe your hosting plan includes backups. Maybe it doesn’t. Either way, you still want to make sure that you know backups are running daily and that you have direct access to them if something were to happen. In the case of my client, she could have had her web host try to restore her site, but the charge to start that was $150 and there wasn’t any guarantee of when the backup was taken and what state her site would be restored to.

Protect Your Investment

I know you’ve spent countless hours, a good amount of your hard earned money and maybe some sleepless nights constructing your website. Even if you haven’t put cash on the table, it represents a serious investment you’ve made in your business. That investment is now paying you dividends in the form of new clients and visibility for your business. Don’t risk losing it, make sure your site is backed up!

How you ask? Well, if you have a WordPress site, BackupBuddy (affiliate link) is my choice for a backup plugin. It is what I used last night to get my client’s site back up and running. I use it not just because it does a great job of backing up the site, but really because it is quick & easy to restore a site. There are lots of other worthy backup plugins for WordPress. Pick one & use it.

If you have another type of site, know what your backup options are and then make sure that they are running frequently (daily is best if you are routinely updating your site), that they are stored somewhere other than your hosting account and that you have direct access to them. This may mean that you have to weekly go in and download your backup, but trust me, it is worth the effort.

If this just isn’t your thing, or if you have other demands on your time, hire someone else to do it. Not sure what it is worth to you? Do a quick calculation of what the daily “value” of your website is to your business.

Have you ever experienced losing a website? What happened? Did you have a backup? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.