WordPress (WP) sites are made up two elements: files and a database. Essentially, the files contain the design aspect of your site. The database store the details and content of your pages, blog posts and WP settings. You’ll need to backup both to accomplish a “full backup”. Below is the manual way to accomplish a full backup of your site – and personally the best way as you can’t always rely on plugins!

Backup your Files (via a File Manager)

1. Log into your hosting account so you can manage the files of your website. There are plenty of interfaces for this (cPanel, ISPManager etc) but generally look for something called the File Manager.
2. Locate the root directory for your WordPress installation, and look for a folder called wp-content. This folder essentially contains the make-up of your website including all the plugins and images you use. Everything outside of “wp-content” folder can be ignored as they are the WordPress core files which appear by default when downloading and installing any version of WP.
3. Backing up your files using the File Manager is great because you can quickly create a ZIP or TGZ to compress the entire contents of the items you’ve selected. Select the folder called wp-content and click the compress button. It might be called something similar plus feature an icon like this…
   
4. Wait a moment while it compresses. Once it’s complete, download the newly created ZIP or TGZ (unless it has done this automatically) onto your computer. Rename the file appropriately – usually you would include the current date (eg. “mydomain-05-08-2011.zip”). Keep this file stored safely.

That’s how to backup the design files of your website. To restore your files again just upload the compressed file to the root directory of your WP installation and expand/extract the file to unpack the contents as they once were. Now for part two….

Backup your Database (via phpMyAdmin)

Most website owners can manage their databases using phpMyAdmin. If you are unsure of this part then simply just use this WP plugin to accomplish the same task.

1. Log into phpMyAdmin. Usually you just point your browser to mydomain.com/myadmin and login using the details given to you by your hosting provider.
2. On the left hand side click the database which your WP site uses.
3. You’ll be displayed with a number of tables. Depending on the version of phpMyAdmin you’re using, there should be a tab called Export. Click Export.
4. Ensure you click Select All, to select all the tables of your database.
5. Check the “Add DROP TABLE” box. (This can be useful for over-writing an existing database.)
6. Check the “Add IF NOT EXISTS” check box. (This prevents errors during restores if the tables are already there.)
7. You can optionally check the “Complete inserts” box. (Though it won’t matter too much if you don’t.)
8. You can optionally check the Extended Inserts if you wish. (This gives a smaller, but less readable, output file.)
9. Check the “Save as File” box
10. Check the “None” for compression. If your database is very large use a compression method.
11. Click the Go button on the bottom right. The data will now be saved into your computer.

That’s it! Again rename this file appropriately and store alongside the compressed file that you have of your files.

To restore your database:

1. On phpMyAdmin, first delete all the existing tables. On the Structure tab, tick every table and select “drop” from the dropdown list. Click Go.
2. Click the Import tab. Where it says “Location of the text file” locate the file of your database backup file.
3. Click Go. It may be instance or take a little while, but once done it’ll give you a message saying it has successfully complete!

When restoring your WordPress website, just ensure that the settings in the file wp-config.php match exactly the details of your database name, username and password.

Introducing my Dad’s business to the online world the right way proved to be the perfect remedy for getting his business through the recession with flying colours. Relying whole heartedly on word-of-mouth or the Yellow Pages just isn’t going to cut the mustard these days, especially not considering that the average person in the UK today will find a tradesman via a simple Google search.

Why would someone trawl through a huge book of services or ask around for a plumber when they can find someone in seconds using the internet? Today a business without a website is commercial suicide, so we set up Missing Button to help these very people.

Free Advice

Of course we are happy to help a project, business or personal website of any scale – but Missing Button’s perfect customer would be someone who could benefit from our web and marketing skills the most. We’ve all heard the sad stories of failing businesses and the unfortunate knock-on effects that is has to their family. We don’t want this to happen to you or any anyone that you might know, so even if you’re looking for some free advice we’d love to hear from you.

You can contact us easily using the simple form to the lower right or email us at hello@missingbutton.co.uk

We’re looking forward to meeting people with a great new or existing project/business, then becoming a key role in making it a success. Please take a look around our own website to discover all the services we offer, but rest assured we do the whole package. Web design, hosting, marketing, PR and web management: our aim is to keep things simple for you – all in one place.

We’ve harnessed our skills together so your website will go hand-in-hand with your marketing strategy: it’s all a part of your brand so avoid complicating the look and feel of your business by having the entire team together, working together.

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Feel free to send us an email to hello@missingbutton.co.uk with any questions you may have as we’ll be happy to help.