Picture this: It is Monday morning. You sit down with your coffee, open your laptop to check your weekend sales, and... nothing. A 404 error. Your website is gone.
Maybe it was a malicious hack. Maybe a disgruntled employee deleted the database. Or maybe a server update just went wrong. Without a recent backup, your business has effectively ceased to exist online.
At Custom Coded Websites, we treat data integrity as the foundation of web development. While we build robust security into our Django applications, we also know that having a fail-safe is non-negotiable. Here is your step-by-step guide to backing up your website correctly.
1. Understand What You Are Backing Up
A website isn't just one file. To restore a site fully, you need to secure two distinct elements:
- The Files: This includes your code (HTML, CSS, Python/PHP), your images, your documents, and your themes. This is the "body" of your website.
- The Database: This is the "brain." It contains your customer data, order history, blog post text, and user accounts. If you lose the files, the site looks broken. If you lose the database, the site is empty.
2. The Golden Rule: 3-2-1 Strategy
In the IT world, we live by the 3-2-1 Backup Rule. If you are not following this, you are not backed up.
- 3 Copies of Data: You should have your live site plus two backups.
- 2 Different Media Types: Do not store your backup on the same server as your website. If the server fails, you lose both. Store one in the cloud (e.g., AWS S3) and one elsewhere.
- 1 Off-Site Copy: Keep one copy completely separate from your hosting environment (e.g., a local download or a different cloud provider).
3. Method 1: The Hosting Provider (The First Line of Defence)
Most reputable hosting providers offer automated daily backups.
Step 1: Log into your hosting control panel (cPanel, AWS Console, etc.). Step 2: Locate the "Backups" section. Step 3: Ensure "Daily Automated Backups" are turned ON. Step 4: Check the retention policy. How long do they keep them? We recommend at least 30 days.
Warning: Never rely solely on this. If your hosting account is hacked or suspended, you lose these backups too.
4. Method 2: Remote Cloud Backups (The Professional Standard)
For our custom clients, we script automated pipelines that send encrypted backups to secure cloud storage like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.
Step 1: Create a dedicated "Bucket" in a cloud storage service. Step 2: Use a script (or a plugin if you are on WordPress) to zip your site files and export your database dump. Step 3: Schedule this to run every night at 3 AM (when traffic is low). Step 4: Configure "Lifecycle Rules" to automatically delete backups older than 60 days to save storage costs.
5. Method 3: Local Manual Backups (The Fail-Safe)
Once a month, you should physically download a copy of your site to your own office hard drive.
Step 1: Use an FTP client (like FileZilla) to download your public_html or code folder. Step 2: Log into your database manager (like phpMyAdmin or pgAdmin) and "Export" your database as a .sql file. Step 3: Zip these together, date the folder (e.g., Backup_2025_12_30), and store it on an encrypted external drive.
6. The Most Important Step: Testing
A backup is only a backup if it works. A corrupted file that cannot be restored is useless.
Every quarter, perform a "Fire Drill." Try to restore your website to a staging environment using only your backup files. If you encounter errors, fix your backup process now, not during a real emergency.
Conclusion: Automation is Key
If you have to remember to click a button to back up your site, you will eventually forget. Humans are fallible; scripts are not.
At Custom Coded Websites, we include automated, redundant backup systems in all our maintenance packages. We ensure that if the worst happens, your London business can be back online in minutes, not days.
Contact us today to audit your current backup strategy and ensure your digital assets are secure.