We begin with an honest look at what you have now. We ask who holds the hosting login, whether backups exist, how often they run, where they are kept and when anyone last opened one. We check the hosting plan’s own backups, any plugin or service in use and whether copies leave the server. Many sites are found to rely on a single weekly copy on the same server as the website, which fails the moment the server does. Then we explain the basics in plain language. A website has two parts: files such as themes, plugins and uploads, and a database that holds pages, posts, orders and settings. A useful backup captures both, and a copy of only one is rarely enough. We explain the difference between full backups, which copy everything, and incremental ones, which copy only changes, and why both can be useful. We cover the rule of keeping several copies in different places: one on the host, one in cloud storage under your own account and, for important sites, one offline. We decide frequency from how often the site changes. A brochure site may need weekly backups, a blog with daily posts needs daily ones and an online store with orders needs near-continuous protection, as lost orders cannot be recreated; see website backups and restoration. We set up or review the schedule and storage with your team watching, and we explain retention: how many copies to keep and for how long. Next comes hands-on practice. Learners take a manual backup, name it clearly, download and store it, and write down the date. They learn when manual backups are essential: before plugin or theme updates, before editing code, before big content changes and before migrating. We show how to check a backup, looking at its size and date, opening a sample and confirming the database file exists. Then we practise a restore on a staging or test copy: choosing a backup, restoring files and database, clearing caches and checking that pages, forms and logins work. We also cover partial restores, such as bringing back one deleted page or a single plugin. We write a one-page emergency card: who to call, where backups live, how to switch on maintenance mode and what not to do, such as overwriting the only good copy. We discuss security of backups, since they contain customer data and must be stored with access controls and encryption where possible; see website security best practices and malware cleanup and recovery. We agree a test schedule, for example a restore test every quarter, and a person responsible. We leave a written guide and short screen recordings. A follow-up call after the first month answers real questions. We cannot guarantee that every backup tool works perfectly or that a restore never needs expert help, but a team that knows where the backups are and has done a restore once will stay calm when it matters.
