Then read on...
Backing up WordPress simply means to save a duplicated version of all your important WordPress data and files.
This includes your website theme and all the site files, like plugins, together with your database (which includes posts, users, comments, etc.).
Why Back Up WordPress
You have to regularly back up or keep a duplicated copy of your WordPress database and files is because you need it to restore your site, in case something serious happens to your site.
You may lose access to your WordPress admin area after a hack attempt or some plugin error.
Furthermore, your hosting provider can even lose all your valuable data which you have painstakingly created over time.
In short, with a duplicated copy in hand, it gives you peace of mind.
Many, if not all WordPress hosting providers do offer some kind of limited backup services.
But for your own convenience and safety, it is wise to fully back up your website/blog on your own.
Never rely solely on your web hosting provider for backups.
Backing Up WordPress, How Often?
It all depends on how often you make changes to your website or blog.
From experience, it is advisable to do a complete backup every week or so, if you can.
Two Key Ways To Back Up WordPress
Basically there are two ways to duplicate or back up your WordPress:
i) Automated: where you use free or paid plugins and services to backup your blog at a scheduled time.
ii) Manual: where you save the database and files yourself to an external storage device or cloud (Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP, or email).
Full Manual Backups WordPress Tutorial
In this post, I will only show you how to save and keep your WordPress content safe with the manual way.
What WordPress Content Has To Be Backed Up
WordPress website consists two key parts:
i) WordPress Files
ii) WordPress Database
To back up the entire site, and you have to duplicate both WordPress files and database.
WordPress Database comprises all your posts/pages, tags, comments, plugin settings, categories, theme settings, WordPress settings, user accounts and every URLs/links you have on your site.
WordPress Files consist the three key folders called wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes.
Plus all the other configuration files and a .htaccess file.
The wp-content is a vital folder for your site.
It stores all your images/uploads, plugin files, theme files, and additional files created by plugins.
So you see, both are equally important: without files, there is no website, and without database, there is no data.
That’s why you must back up your files and your database together.
Note: Personally, I find the database and the wp-content folder are the two most important part to be backed up on a regular basis.
With just these two data, you can safely restore or migrate your site to any new hosting account.
Backup WordPress Files (wp-content)
To back up wp-content you can do it with these two methods:
i) cPanel File Manager
ii) FTP client (FileZilla)
Method One: Backup wp-content Folder With File Manager
1. Login to your cPanel at your web hosting account.
2. Go to the “File Management” section and click on "File Manager" icon.
4. You select "Web Root (public_html/www)" and click the "Go" button.
5. While others, when you click on the "File Manager", it goes straight to the index page. They can see public_html folder on the let side of the page.
6. Click on the public_html and you can see all the wp-folders on the right side of the page.
7. Whatever, make sure you are in the public_html folder.
8. From there, right click on the blue color “wp-content” folder.
9. A menu box pops up. Click on “Compress”.
10. Another box pops up. For "Compression Type", select "Zip Archive".
11. This will create a file called wp-content.zip.
12. Make sure it is in the /public_html/ folder. (see below)
13. Then click "Compress File(s)" button at the bottom right hand corner of the box.
14. It will start archiving.
15. Once it is finished , some of you may see a box called "Compression Results". Just click the "Close" button.
16. When it’s done, refresh the File Manager by clicking on the small "Reload Current current page" icon at the right side end of the address bar on top of the page. (see image below)
17. Look for wp-content.zip file by double clicking on public_html.
18. Scroll down and you can find the brown color folder titled wp-content.zip.
19. Now download the wp-content.zip file on to your PC first.
20. You do it by double clicking on the wp-content.zip file.
21. A box pops up. Select "Save File" option.
22. Then click on the "OK" button.
23. This may take a rather long time, maybe an hour or so, depending on your connection speed and the size of your website.
24. Important: Once it is done, remember to delete the zip file completely from the /public_html/ to save disk space. By right clicking on the wp-content.zip file.
25. Then you should transfer this zip file to external storage. be it Dropbox, thumb drive, etc.
26. Never keep your backup files in your computer. If anything happens to your PC, then you lost your backup copy.
Method Two: Back Up wp-content Folder With FTP FileZilla
For this tutorial, you need to have an FTP account and Filezilla software installed on your computer.
1. First open Filezilla and connect it to your web host server.
Note: Here is the tutorial, if you have problem connecting FileZilla to your web host server.
2. After you have connected, for "Remote site:" on the right panel, double click on "public_html".
3. It will drop down a list of folders. You can see wp-content folder there.
4. Next, on the left panel under "Filename", there is a empty yellow color folder icon.
5. Create this into "wp-content" by right clicking on it.
5. A menu pops up. Click on "Create directory".
6. Then a box pops up. Type in the name wp-content in the box provided.
7. Then click on the "OK" button.
8. Now you should see this yellow folder titled wp-content.
9. Click on wp-content folder.
10. Instantly you will see the yellow folder appears under "Filename".
11. Now move your cursor over to the right panel to the wp-content folder under "Remote Site/public_html.
12. Left click on the mouse and hold your finger there and drag the wp-content data over to the just created empty wp-content folder on the left under "Filename".
13. Instantly it will start transferring all the data to this new folder.
14. Wait for it to transfer. Once it has completed, it means you have successfully backed up your WordPress site.
15. Now you can see this newly-created wp-content folder on your Desktop.
16. Again don't just leave it there, in case something happens to your PC hard drive.
17. It is wise to transfer the backup folder to different storage types, which include an external hard drive or cloud storage, for safe keeping.
18. For additional safety, keep two or three copies of this backup content.
Two More Ways Backing Up WordPress Database
*Here are two ways how to back up WordPress database via phpMyAdmin and cPanel.