The most common backup mistake is having only one copy, stored in only one place. If a backup lives on the same server as your live website and that server has a hardware failure, a ransomware infection, or an account suspension, both your live site and your backup are gone simultaneously.
A real backup strategy involves at least two copies in two different locations. Here is how to build one using tools that are already available to you.
Step One: Automated Backups on the Server
cPanel provides two built-in mechanisms for creating backups of your hosting account.
JetBackup (available on many cPanel hosting plans including dotCanada's) is the more capable option. It can be configured to run daily database backups and weekly full-account backups automatically, storing multiple restore points on the server. To access it, look for JetBackup in your cPanel dashboard. From there you can review existing backup points, configure backup schedules, and perform one-click restores of individual files, databases, or your entire account.
cPanel Backup Wizard is the built-in alternative if JetBackup is not available on your plan. It does not schedule automatic backups, but it lets you generate and download a full account backup manually. For sites that do not change frequently, a weekly manual backup download is a workable approach.
What to back up: Daily database backups are the most important. Your WordPress database contains all your posts, pages, settings, customer data, and orders - everything that cannot easily be rebuilt. Full file backups (which include your theme, plugins, and uploads) are important but change less frequently. A reasonable schedule is: daily database backups, weekly full-account backups.
How much storage you need: A typical small business WordPress site with a few years of media uploads is usually 1 to 5GB. Multiply your site size by the number of restore points you want to keep (7 daily plus 4 weekly = 11 backup points) to estimate your storage needs. Most shared hosting plans include enough disk space for a reasonable on-server backup schedule.
Step Two: Pulling Backups Off-Server to Cloud Storage
On-server backups handle most common scenarios - accidental file deletion, plugin conflicts, bad updates. But they do not protect against server-level failure or account-level issues. That is where off-server backups come in.
UpdraftPlus is the most widely used WordPress backup plugin and handles this step well. Install it, configure it to take scheduled backups, and set a remote storage destination: Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or OneDrive. UpdraftPlus uploads each backup directly to your cloud storage on a schedule you set. The free version supports all major cloud destinations.
A practical configuration: UpdraftPlus daily database backups to Google Drive, and weekly full backups (files plus database) retained for 4 weeks. This gives you at least 7 daily restore points on-server (via JetBackup) and 4 weekly restore points in Google Drive.
Storage costs: Google Drive gives you 15GB free. A typical small business site's weekly full backup runs 1 to 3GB compressed. You will likely need to pay for Google One storage ($3.49/month for 100GB in Canada) once you accumulate several weeks of backups - a worthwhile cost.
Testing Your Restores
A backup you have never tested is a backup you cannot trust. Once per quarter, do a restore test:
- Spin up a local WordPress environment using Local by Flywheel
- Download one of your off-server backups from Google Drive
- Restore it locally using UpdraftPlus's restore function
- Confirm the site loads correctly with current data
This takes about 30 minutes and confirms that your backups are actually usable. Many businesses discover problems during this test - corrupted backup files, incorrect storage paths, plugin conflicts in the restore process - that would have been catastrophic to discover during a real emergency.
Two locations, two mechanisms, quarterly testing. That is a backup strategy that genuinely protects you.
