Why You MUST Back Up Your Website Regularly

It’s amazing how many businesses invest so heavily in their websites, yet completely overlook the importance of backing up. The problem with website backups is that they are precisely the kind of thing you do not fully appreciate until you desperately need them. By which time, it’s not as if you can go back in time and protect yourself with one.One of the biggest problems inherent to just about everything in the digital age is the constant concern regarding crashes, data corruption and general hardware failures. The fact that creating comprehensive website backups is so easy makes it even more perplexing that comparatively few give it the priority it deserves. Once again, it isn’t until you find yourself in desperate need of a complete backup of your website that you appreciate how important backing up can be. And if you needed any further justification by backing up your website completely and regularly, you need only consider the following:Update IssuesFirst and foremost, it’s worth remembering that every time a software update is released, installing it can cause a wide variety of key issues. From WordPress to Windows and everything in between, you can never be fully sure how your system will react to a software update. Such updates are of course released for positive reasons and are important to install, both for performance and security reasons alike. Nevertheless, any issues that occur while carrying out the software update could effectively wipe your website clean off the face of the earth.Hackers Are CruelMore often than not, hackers hack their way into secure systems to steal sensitive and valuable information. Others place ‘blocks’ on websites and IT systems, forcing their respective owners to pay something of a ransom to once again gain access. But there is also an enormous community of hackers all over the world for whom destroying or wiping as much data as possible just for the sake of it is their number one priority. They gain nothing from the proceedings other than a sense of sinister satisfaction – those who own the websites are taken back to the drawing board. At which point, the importance of the full data backup becomes glaringly apparent.Mistakes HappenOne of the most common causes of data loss and corruption in general is simple human error. Given the complexity and sensitivity of data in general, it is frighteningly easy to delete the wrong thing at the wrong time. Given the nature of websites and IT systems in general, the deletion of just one or two key files could lead to the functionality of your entire website being compromised. Should this be the case, it is perfectly possible that the only effective recourse is to roll things back using a backup.Save Time and MoneyLast but not least, not only is it comprehensively simple to create a full backup of any website, it also costs next to nothing to do so. More often than not, whichever server company or website development team you work with should be able to offer this as an additional service for very little additional money. And given the enormous amounts of time and money a backup could save you when needed, it represents one of the most important and sensible investments any online business can make.