Many WordPress site owners think regular backups are enough to keep a website safe. But when their site crashes and they can’t restore it quickly, they risk losing their entire business.
Too often, sites go down during a big sale or traffic spike. Without a disaster recovery plan, there’s no clear path to get back online fast. Not to mention, it can be stressful and expensive.
Fortunately, creating a recovery plan doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, most of the tools you need are probably already within reach.
After helping countless WordPress site owners recover from unexpected issues, we’ve compiled a simple, reliable approach to disaster recovery.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the exact steps to protect your site, reduce downtime, and stay prepared – no matter what happens. 🛡️
Why Do You Need a WordPress Disaster Recovery Plan?
Even though WordPress is a powerful and popular platform, unexpected events can still take down your website. A WordPress disaster recovery plan acts like a roadmap for restoring your website.
Here’s why it’s important to have one:
- Minimizes Downtime and Data Loss: Disasters can strike in many forms, from hacking attacks to accidental deletion of files. A recovery plan helps you get your WordPress site back up and running quickly, minimizing the amount of time your site is unavailable.
- Protects Your Reputation: A WordPress website outage can damage your reputation and break user trust. A disaster recovery plan allows you to address the issue quickly and restore the user’s confidence.
- Ensures Business Continuity: If your website is important for your business, then a disaster recovery plan lowers the disruption to your operations. By getting your site back online quickly, you can limit revenue loss.
That said, we’ll walk you through how to create a disaster recovery plan. You can click the links below to move to any step:
- Step 1. Analyze Weak Areas of Your WordPress Site
- Step 2. Regularly Back Up Your WordPress Site
- Step 3. Monitor WordPress Web Server Uptime
- Step 4. Strengthen Your Website Security
- Step 5. Hire a WordPress Maintenance & Support Service
- Step 6. Test Your Disaster Recovery Plan
- FAQs Around Making a Wordpress Disaster Recovery Plan
Let’s get started.
Step 1. Analyze Weak Areas of Your WordPress Site
Before you can protect your website, you need to know what you’re protecting it from. Start by thinking about the potential disasters that could impact your website.
For instance, server crashes, power outages, plugin conflicts, corrupted databases, and WordPress errors can temporarily make your site unavailable to users or restrict the user experience.
You can start by enabling the debug mode, checking the WordPress error logs, and then fixing each issue.
Another risk you need to consider is hackers trying to steal your data, inject malicious code, or hold your website hostage for ransom. Accidentally deleting important files, installing incompatible updates, or falling for phishing scams can also cause disasters.
You can try to find vulnerabilities and weak areas on your site that hackers can target. This involves out-of-date plugins, WordPress core files, themes, weak passwords, and more.
It is also a best practice to document everything on your site. This includes website login details, plugin and theme settings, custom code snippets, hosting account information, and emergency contact information for your hosting provider, security experts, or web developers.
You can also use a cloud storage service or a password manager to keep your documentation safe and accessible. This way, if something goes wrong, you can recover important information in an instant.
Step 2. Regularly Back Up Your WordPress Site
Once you’ve highlighted the weak areas, the next thing to do is back up all the important elements on your site. These include blog posts, landing pages, images, videos, theme files, customer information, comments, plugins, themes, CSS files, and more.
The easiest way to create WordPress backups is to use a plugin like Duplicator Pro. It is super easy to use for creating backup packages, along with migrating and cloning your site.
The WordPress backup plugin also includes more features like scheduled backups, recovery points, cloud storage integration, migration tools, and more.
Did you know? Some of our partner brands use Duplicator to create and manage their site backups. You can learn more about the plugin and see what it offers in our full Duplicator review.
You can also manually backup your site’s data using an FTP client, the File Manager in your hosting company’s cPanel or dashboard, or the phpMyAdmin panel.
There’s also a free version of Duplicator that you can use to get started. For step-by-step details, please see our guide on how to back up your WordPress website.
With a fresh copy of your site ready, you can easily restore WordPress from the backup anytime a disaster occurs. This way, you can prevent data loss and get your site up and running in no time.
Step 3. Monitor WordPress Web Server Uptime
Another important tool to have in your disaster recovery plan is a server uptime monitor. Uptime is when your website is available to users on the Internet without any interruption.
These tools will monitor your site’s server and inform you whenever it’s down. If something goes wrong with your site, they will notify you immediately by email or SMS, allowing you to fix it as soon as possible.
For example, you can use UptimeRobot to monitor uptime. The best part is that it is free, but you can also sign up for its premium plans to receive alerts via SMS, voicemail, email, and other channels.
For more uptime monitoring tools, you can follow our guide on how to monitor your WordPress website server uptime.
If you experience an outage or server downtime, then you’ll immediately know. The next step would be to clear the cache and DNS cache to see if your site is restored.
Or you can reach out to your web hosting provider for assistance and ensure your site is back up and running. See our guide on how to contact WordPress support for more information.
Step 4. Strengthen Your Website Security
A secure website is a website that’s less likely to experience disasters in the first place. In a WordPress disaster recovery plan, you can strengthen your site’s security by:
- Choosing Strong Passwords: Use unique and complex passwords for all your website accounts. If you experience a disaster, then it’s critical that you change all the passwords to new and strong ones.
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication: You should enable two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security for all your logins.
- Keep Everything Updated: Regularly update your WordPress core, plugins, and themes to patch security vulnerabilities. In case something goes wrong, ensure that you update your plugins, themes, and core files after recovering from a backup.
- Use WordPress Security Plugins: Install WordPress security plugins like Sucuri to scan for malware, block suspicious activity, and monitor your website’s security.
- Add a Web Application Firewall (WAF): In addition to a security plugin, you should also use a WAF on your site. It will prevent malicious traffic from reaching your site and causing a disaster.
For more security tips, please see our ultimate guide to WordPress security.
🧑💻 Pro Tip: Has your WordPress site been hacked, and you’re not sure what to do? It might be time to call in the professionals.
With WPBeginner Hacked Site Repair, our team of experts will clean up malicious code, files, and malware and get your site back up and running in no time.
Step 5. Hire a WordPress Maintenance & Support Service
Another important part of your disaster recovery plan should be hiring WordPress experts who can fix problems quickly and restore your website.
There are many WordPress maintenance services you can choose from. They provide regular backups, monitor your site’s uptime, provide 24/7 support, optimize your site for speed, and help recover your website from any sort of disaster.
For instance, WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services is the best support agency you can use for your website. We have over 15 years of experience in the industry and have helped more than 100,000 users with WordPress.
We will also ensure that your WordPress core, plugins, and themes are always up-to-date and that the latest updates won’t negatively affect your website’s performance.
Besides basic website maintenance, there are other services you can also get. These include website design, SEO services to boost traffic, speed optimization, emergency support, and more.
For more information, please see the complete list of WPBeginner Pro Services.
Step 6. Test Your Disaster Recovery Plan
You won’t know how effective your WordPress disaster recovery plan is unless you actually test it.
For instance, you can simulate a disaster and test your plan by restoring your website from a backup to a local or staging environment. This will ensure that your backups are up to date and that the scheduled backups are working correctly.
In case there is a WordPress error while restoring the backup or you feel an important element is missing in the backup files, then you can fix it during the simulation.
You should also ensure that your website is functioning correctly, all your data is intact, and everything is working as it should.
FAQs Around Making a Wordpress Disaster Recovery Plan
To help you get started and answer some of the most common questions, here are key FAQs around making a WordPress disaster recovery plan:
What is a WordPress disaster recovery plan?
A WordPress disaster recovery plan involves strategies and tools to quickly restore your website in case of unexpected downtime or data loss. It includes regular backups, security measures, and documented procedures to minimize disruption.
How often should I back up my WordPress site?
It’s recommended to back up your site at least once a week or more frequently if you’re making regular updates, such as adding new content or making design changes. Automated backup tools like Duplicator Pro can simplify this process.
What are the most common causes of website downtime?
Common causes include hacking attempts, server issues, plugin conflicts, and human errors such as accidental deletion of critical files. Regular monitoring and maintenance can help mitigate these risks.
Can I create a disaster recovery plan on my own?
Yes, many WordPress users successfully create their own recovery plans using online resources and plugins. However, if you’re unsure, consulting with a WordPress maintenance service can provide added expertise and peace of mind.
How can I test my disaster recovery plan?
You can test your plan by simulating a disaster, such as restoring a backup to a staging environment. This practice helps ensure your backups are functioning correctly and identifies any potential weaknesses in your plan.
We hope this article helped you learn how to make a WordPress disaster recovery plan. You may also want to see our guide on crucial maintenance tasks to perform regularly and our ultimate WordPress maintenance guide.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Dennis Muthomi
The emphasis on regular backups really resonates with me – just last month, a client’s site went down due to a plugin conflict, but we had it restored within 15 minutes thanks to our daily backup system.
One additional tip I’ve found valuable is keeping a separate backup of critical custom code snippets in a version control system.
This has saved countless hours during restorations, especially when managing multiple sites with custom functionality.
Olaf
Very well put. The core of any disaster recovery plan is regular website backups. If I may offer a tip: store backups externally, separate from the website’s storage. This easily solves the issue of a complete server failure. There’s nothing worse than creating regular backups only to store them in the same location as the website, then facing a costly and unsolvable problem if the entire machine goes down along with the site and its backups.
Samuel
I learned new information here today, in that I learned about UptimeRobot which I have not heard of before now. While I have always emphasize the need to be ready for any glitch in the running of your business websites, This article throw new perspective which I have not really thought of before now and that is simulating disaster to test the effectiveness of our planed. This is really important as it will allow us to know exactly what to do if the real situation happens. Besides, the UptimeRobot will help us to know immediately, of any underperformance in our server. Thank you for your insight on this. Great article.
WPBeginner Support
Glad we could share a new tool for you
Admin
Moinuddin Waheed
This one article is very close to my heart as I have been in such a disaster situation and have was unable to recover the website.
I completely agree and always recommend to have a solid backup plan. it should be regular and timely.
we should always test the backup solution to some local wordpress installation.
it the becomes easy to recover in case something bad or worst happen.
Mrteesurez
I understand you and thank for your recommendation. A solid backup plan is crucial. I once had a client’s site crash during a critical sales period, and thankfully, I had regular backups in place. The restoration process was smooth because I had tested the backups on a local WordPress installation beforehand. This experience taught me the importance of not just having backups but also ensuring they work when you need them most. It’s a lifesaver!
Absalom Singagwari
Its also critical that you choose a very reliable and prompt hosting service provider. Sometimes, you need to resort to the hosting service provider to assist with your recovery plan, for instance to provide server level error logs. If your service provider is sluggish, your recovery may take a little longer than it should have under normal circumstances.
So in your plan keep that in mind as well!
Kzain
is Cloudflare a good idea it uses basic WAF I use Cloudflare DNS and CDN, and it offers some security as well. And I never understood how backup works does it count towards my hosting data if I create daily backups does the previous one get deleted to save the space?
WPBeginner Support
It would depend on the specific tool you are using and the settings you set for where the data is stored and how backups are handled.
Admin
Jiří Vaněk
When it comes to FTP data and your tariff, it’s important to plan ahead for how you’ll handle backups. For instance, if you use Duplicator for backups and store them on FTP, those backups will consume space and count towards your tariff. Logically, backups stored on FTP will occupy space just like your website data and will consume resources. Additionally, this isn’t a good practice because both your main website and backups are stored in one place on one server. If something physically happens to the server, you risk losing both data and backups. Therefore, it’s much better practice to store backups in a different location, both physically and geolocationally. Physically, to eliminate the risk of having everything on one server, and geolocationally, to eliminate the risk of something happening to the data center or the provider failing. Personally, I have my website on one server and backups stored in two completely independent locations. Moreover, when you automate backups, you don’t have to worry about them. Yes, in Duplicator, you can set up backups to Google Drive, for example, with a maximum number of backups and older backups will be deleted accordingly. For instance, you can have 5 backups, and when the 6th is created, the first one will be deleted to maintain a constant set of 5 backups. Elegant and fully automated.
Mrteesurez
This reply has answered my question about how Duplicator replaces previous backups data .
Thanks for the advice you have given and your recommendation. I agree with the idea of keep the backups in another remote locations other than servers.
Jiří Vaněk
I have WordPress on my own server, and that’s why it was critically important for me to create a disaster recovery plan. Even from the perspective of a recently completed cybersecurity course, it is clear to me how crucial it is to maintain continuity and data availability in case of a disaster. Therefore, I never rely on just one backup in one place. I have a backup of the website in three separate locations, going back a month and automated. Thanks to this, I have copies of the website and MySQL up to 30 days back. What helped me with automation was Duplicator, which automates backups to Google Drive, and also the classic Cron on the server, which triggers backups to paid cloud storage. It’s great how detailed your plan is, that in addition to backups, you also focus on security, etc. A must-have article for beginners.
Mrteesurez
I gained more insights when read this article. The roadmap you gave is great and the tips there are helpful. It is a must for a professional website, a money making business website to take the matter of security very serious.
Thanks your helpful guide. I want to ask if there is a server crash and all data are gone, is there any solution to restore the data from the hosting level and who is responsible for the crash ?
WPBeginner Comments
Some hosting options offer backups as part of the hosting package.
The site owner is typically the one who will need to take action to restore the site, but this will depend on the hosting agreement and type of plan.
For example, if the hosting plan is more of a managed hosting plan, the hosting service may take care of some of the steps for you.
Jiří Vaněk
It depends on who is responsible for the crash. If it’s a hardware failure of the server, the server provider should be responsible, and they usually have their own disaster recovery solutions where they back up server data and can create a copy of the original within minutes. If the website crashes due to a user error, then you need your own solution because you are responsible for such a crash. For example, if you break the site with an update or it gets hacked. If you want to handle recovery with your own solution, I recommend Duplicator, especially if you don’t have much experience. With Duplicator, you can set up automatic backups to Google Drive, and you’ll have peace of mind because the plugin will perform the backups for you. And the restoration process is simple.
Mrteesurez
Thanks for your answer.
Do you have either how Duplicator keeps the backup as in, does it replace the previous backup data to store the new ones or create another storage path.
Kzain
i think To manage backup storage and delete older backups, you’ll need to do it manually. This involves deleting the unwanted backup files from the storage location (local or remote).