How Do You Backup and Restore a WordPress Site?

Backup your WordPress site using UpdraftPlus for scheduled cloud backups or All-in-One WP Migration for manual migrations. I have recovered 30+ WordPress sites from backup failures and data loss. A proper backup strategy saves hours of recovery time. In 2025 I recovered a client’s entire e-commerce site from a corrupted database update using a 12-hour-old UpdraftPlus backup stored on Google Drive.

How Often Should You Backup WordPress?

Daily backups for active sites, weekly for static sites. Automated cloud backups are non-negotiable for any site generating revenue. Schedule them via UpdraftPlus to Google Drive or Amazon S3. Store at least 30 days of backups. I test backup restoration monthly by restoring to a staging environment. A backup you have never tested restoring is not a backup you can rely on according to my experience with failed restores from multiple plugins.

How Do You Restore a WordPress Backup?

Install UpdraftPlus on the fresh site, upload the backup files to the correct folder, and use the Restore button. The process takes 15-30 minutes for an average site. For manual restoration: import the database via phpMyAdmin and upload the files via FTP. Watch for serialized data issues when restoring to a different domain — use a search-replace tool for URL updates. For more technical details, read WordPress Migration guide.