Importance of Data Backups for Your Website Hosted on a Shared Server

Site owners give a lot of importance to website security. If you are using a Shared Hosting plan, then most of the regular maintenance tasks are usually taken care of by the web host. Right from choosing a web hosting service that prioritises security to using the latest security tools and creating difficult-to-guess passwords, they don’t leave any stone unturned to keep their data safe. However, the worst may happen. Despite the best security measures, a virus or a hacker can get through the defences, and cause havoc on the site or corrupt the data. In such cases, a real-time, comprehensive backup can be your saviour.

Today, we will be talking about the importance of backups, especially if you have hosted your site on the Shared Hosting architecture.

1. Prevention against losing important data

Let’s say that you have a team managing different aspects of your website. A new member joins and is trained thoroughly before being given access to the site. However, they accidentally delete crucial content or web pages on the site. In these cases, having a comprehensive backup strategy will come to your rescue.

2. Prevention against human error

Taking the example cited above, apart from data, a user can erroneously delete or overwrite a vital system file breaking your site or affecting its functionality. Detecting the problem itself can take days for large sites. During that period, your website will be unavailable to users and damage your SEO and brand reputation. Having the latest working copy of your site backed up can ensure that any human error does not impact your site.

3. A safety net in case of a security breach

Many site owners think that hackers only target websites of large corporations. The belief is probably rooted in the assumption that they don’t have anything valuable that hackers might want to steal. In today’s times, user data is highly valuable, making small sites vulnerable to attacks too. Usually, these attacks happen via a virus or malware that overwhelms your website, providing access to the hacker. If you have a backup, you can replace the infected version with a clean version and protect your site against such attacks.

4. Insurance against shared directories

If you are using WordPress on a shared server, then the folder containing your files and content is stored in the server’s directory that all users share. Hence, if a hacker gains access to this directory, they can corrupt the data in all folders. While they may not steal any valuable information, you will suddenly start seeing error messages on your webpages. A backup will be able to help you restore services in no time.

Summing Up

When you launch a website, you buy the best hosting plan, create unique and informative content, optimise it for SEO, use social media platforms to promote your site and do everything to ensure that you get more visitors. However, if you don’t plan the security and backup of your website well, then all those efforts will be worthless since there will be no site to display if it gets hacked or if the data gets deleted. Hence, ensure that you backup your site regularly. Good Luck!