# If your website broke tonight, could you get it back by morning?

https://smartwebutah.com/wordpress-backup-strategies-for-saint-george-utah-businesses/

How to back up and update your WordPress site so a hack, a bad update or a server failure costs you an hour, not your business's website.

June 3, 2025 · Seth Shoultes

 

You open your website one morning and it is gone. Maybe an update went wrong, maybe it was hacked, maybe the server it lives on failed. The question that matters then is simple: is there a recent copy, and does anyone know how to put it back?

For most small businesses the honest answer is “I’m not sure”. Here is how to get to “yes”.

## Keep your site updated

One of the most common ways into a website is software that was not updated. WordPress, its plugins and its themes all get security fixes, and sometimes a hole is made public before the fix is out, so the people trying to break in know about it too. A site left alone for months is an easy target.

I have been saying this since 2015, and it is still true: if your WordPress site is not updated regularly, it is at risk.

Much of the routine work can be automated now. Tools can apply updates on schedule, take a backup first, and warn you about problems, which saves you time and catches the mistakes people make when they are busy. Automation does not replace a person, though. When an update breaks something, or you are planning a big change, you want someone who knows WordPress.

## Back up on a schedule that matches your business

How often to back up depends on how often your site changes. A site that takes bookings or orders every day needs a backup every day, or more often in your busy season. A simple site that changes once a month can get by with less.

The backup must include both halves of a WordPress site: the files (themes, plugins, uploaded photos) and the database (your pages, posts, orders and settings). A copy of only one is not a backup.

## Keep copies in more than one place

A backup stored on the same server as your site disappears with it. Keep at least one copy somewhere else, ideally a couple of copies in different places, so no single failure takes everything. Encrypt the copies, especially if your site holds customer information.

Some businesses have extra rules. A healthcare practice, for example, has to protect patient information in its backups as carefully as on the live site.

## Practice getting it back

A backup is only half the job. The other half is restoring it, and you do not want to learn how during an emergency. Every so often, restore a backup to a test copy of your site and check that it works. Write down the steps, and who to call.

## A short checklist

-   WordPress, plugins and theme updated regularly.
-   Automatic backups of files and database, as often as your site changes.
-   At least one copy stored away from your web server.
-   A restore tested recently, and written steps for doing it again.
-   Someone you can call when it goes wrong.

## Want me to check yours?

If you do not know when your site was last backed up, or whether it could be restored, that is the place to start. Call me at 801-688-8590 or email [seth@smartwebutah.com](mailto:seth@smartwebutah.com), and I will tell you where you stand in plain terms.

## Want help with this?

Call or email and I'll tell you whether you need it.

[Talk to Seth](https://smartwebutah.com/contact/)

Or read [how I build and look after websites](https://smartwebutah.com/website-design-services/).