Have you backed up your Joomla website lately? Over the past few weeks we have noticed that a lot of our new clients don't have any backup procedures in place.
If you're website gets hacked and you don't have a proper backup procedure ready then your site may loose all of its data. Most web hosting environments have automated and schedule server backups, which can be relied upon, but what happens when those backups are corrupt?
Here are some simple tasks that you can do to make sure you have an on going backup that is clean and working of your Joomla website.
1) Joomla Backup Tools
Install Akeeba Backup and set it up on you website if you haven't done so already. There are various other backup tools for a Joomla website but Akeeba is one of the most popular. What ever you prefer, please make sure that you're using one.
We use three main Joomla extensions and plugins together to make sure that everything is in place and backed up! It may seam like overkill but it is better than rebuilding a site from a few HTML and CSS files.
2) Schedule Backups
Make sure that backups are automatically schedule on your website. Create the tasks and CRON jobs required to get these processes automated. It will save laborious time required to login to website and perform the tasks.
3) Download and Test Your Backups
It's one thing to have your backups on your server but if you don't download them and keep a local copy then how are you going to recover the website when the server crashes. All of the backups are on the crashed server!
Also test all of those ZIP archives. Sometimes they are corrupt for what ever reason so it is a good idea to periodically test the backup files to make sure they all work.
4) Server Backups
Get to know how your server backups work and what the process is incase you need to restore your website from one of these backups. Remember that most hosting companies have in their Terms and Conditions that they are not responsible for your backups or content on the website.
5) Work with Your Development Team
If you're working with a development team for your new website and they haven't mentioned the word backups yet, then please bring it up. Work with your developers to find the best way to maintain and backup your website. It will be your development team that will be helping you restore your website if it gets hacked or if the server crashes.
As a website owner it is so important to have these backups in place. Whether it is a Joomla, WordPress or Drupal website, make sure that your website is being backed up and that you have ready copies of the website to restore if anything ever happens.