Website backups: who has a copy of your site?

A website backup is a copy of your site kept somewhere other than the live server, so you can put it back after a mistake, a hack or a host problem. Most small businesses assume their host or designer has one, and often they do, but only for a few weeks and only inside the same company. The safest setup is simple: the host keeps automatic backups, and you keep your own copy, outside that company, refreshed whenever the site changes.

Who might already have a copy

Ask yourself who could hand you a working copy of your website tomorrow. The honest answer is often "nobody I can reach directly".

• Your host. Many hosting plans run automatic backups, typically daily, kept for a limited number of days or weeks. Some only offer this on higher plans, and some charge to restore.
• Your website builder. Wix, Squarespace and similar builders keep their own copies and let you undo changes or restore earlier versions of a page. They generally do not let you download a copy of the whole site to keep yourself.
• Your web designer. They may have the original files on their computer, or backups in their own account. That copy lasts only as long as your relationship with them does.
• You. Usually nobody, unless someone set it up on purpose.

What "the site" actually includes

A backup is only useful if it captures everything needed to put the site back. That depends on how the site is built:

• A simple site made of files (sometimes called a static site): the pages, images and style files. A copy of the folder is the whole site.
• A WordPress site: the files (theme, plugins, uploaded images) and the database, where the actual page text, blog posts and settings live. A backup missing either half cannot be restored.
• A builder site: lives entirely inside the builder. Your practical backup is the content itself, your text and photos, saved elsewhere.

Things people forget to include: form submissions stored on the site, customer accounts, the list of redirects that keep old page addresses working, and any custom code a designer added.

How often to back up

Match it to how often the site changes:

• A site that changes a few times a year: a fresh copy after each change, plus one every few months, is plenty.
• A site with a weekly blog or menu changes: weekly.
• A site that takes bookings, orders or posts comments: daily automatic backups at the host, plus your own regular copy.

How long to keep them matters too. If a site is hacked quietly, the problem may sit there for weeks before anyone notices. A backup history that only goes back a few days might contain the problem already. Keep at least one older copy, a few months back.

Where to keep your own copy

Practical places that work for owners:

• A cloud folder you already pay for, such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, in a folder called something obvious like "Website backups", with the date in each file name.
• An external USB drive kept at home or in the office, for a second copy.
• An email to yourself with a zipped copy is clumsy but better than nothing for very small sites.

How to actually get a copy

On a typical web host

Most hosting control panels (cPanel is a common one) have a Backup or Backup Wizard page that creates a full backup and lets you download it. Some hosts offer a one-click "download backup" next to each automatic backup. If you cannot find it, ask support: "How do I download a full backup of my site, including the database, to keep myself?"

On WordPress

A backup plugin can create scheduled copies and send them straight to Google Drive or Dropbox. Whoever looks after your site can set one up in under an hour. Check that it includes both the files and the database, and that the destination is an account you own.

On a website builder

You usually cannot download the site. Instead, keep the ingredients:

• Copy each page's text into a document.
• Download your original photos and logo files.
• Write down your page list and page addresses.

That will not restore the builder site with one click, but it means a rebuild elsewhere would start from your own material, not from scratch. Owning your website files: why it matters explains the lock-in side of this.

The test nobody does

A backup you have never opened is a hope, not a backup. Once a year:

1. Find your latest copy.
2. Open the zip file. Check that it contains folders of files and, for WordPress, a database file (often ending in .sql).
3. Look at the file date and size. A backup of a few kilobytes is almost certainly empty.
4. Ask your host or designer whether it could be restored as it is, or what else they would need.

If you have a designer, ask them to restore the backup to a temporary address once. It is the only way to know for sure.

Backups and a website change

The moment you replace your website is the moment old copies matter most. Before the switch:

• Take a full backup of the old site, even if you never plan to go back.
• Save a list of every page address, so the new site can keep them working.
• Keep the old backup for at least a year.

What to save before you replace your old website has a fuller list.

Your backup checklist

• Ask your host: are backups automatic, how often, and for how long?
• Ask your designer: do they hold a copy, and can they send it to you?
• Make your own copy today and put it in a cloud folder you own.
• Put a reminder in your calendar to refresh it after every change, or monthly.
• Once a year, open the backup and check it really contains your site.

If the hardest part of backing up turns out to be that nobody can get into the old site at all, you can see your site rebuilt first from what it shows publicly, and keep a copy of the new one from the start.