How to Back Up Your Blog So You Never Lose Content

You hit “update”, the page refreshes, and your stomach drops. The theme looks broken. Then you click a post and it’s gone. Images missing, menus scrambled, maybe even the login won’t work. It doesn’t matter whether it was a bad plugin update, a hacked password, or your host having a terrible day. The feeling is the same: years of work suddenly feel fragile.

A proper blog backup is your calm exit door. In plain terms, it’s a safe copy of your files and database stored away from your live site. If anything goes wrong, you restore that copy and carry on.

This guide gives you a simple, beginner-friendly backup plan that holds up in real life, not just in theory.

What you need to back up (so you can fully rebuild your blog)

A blog isn’t one thing, it’s two. Most disasters become painful because people back up only half.

Think of your site like a bookshop. The database is the catalogue and cash register (what exists, who wrote it, when it was posted). The files are the shelves, book covers, and posters (themes, plugins, images, downloads). If you save only the shelves, the shop looks fine but it sells nothing. If you save only the catalogue, you have a list of books but no covers, no photos, and no layout.

Different platforms store these pieces differently:

• WordPress (self-hosted): usually needs both files and database for a full restore.
• Ghost: content exports are easy, but you still need your images and theme files for a true “back to normal”.
• Hosted builders (Wix, Squarespace, etc.): backups are often more limited. Exports may not include everything, so you may need to save media manually.

A “partial backup” often looks successful until restore day. That’s when you learn the hard way that posts have no images, pages are missing, or settings have reset.

Files: themes, plugins, uploads, and media

Your files usually include:

• Theme files (your design and templates)
• Plugin files (features like forms, caching, galleries)
• Uploads (images, PDFs, videos, audio)
• Any custom code, fonts, or scripts you added

Media matters more than most people think. A blog post without its images reads like a newspaper with half the photos torn out. Even if the words come back, the story feels broken.

One catch: some platforms store media “somewhere else”, or route it through a CDN. Your backup method must include a way to capture that media, not just your text.

Database and settings: posts, pages, comments, users, and SEO details

For many CMSs, the database is where the writing lives. It often holds:

• Posts, pages, and revisions
• Categories and tags
• Comments
• Users and roles
• Site settings and plugin settings
• SEO fields (titles, meta descriptions, canonical settings)

The common “oops” moment goes like this: someone restores only files, sees the theme load, and thinks they’re safe. Then they open the site and it’s empty, because the database never came back. If your blog runs on WordPress, treat the database as your vault. It’s where the work is.

Build a backup plan that survives real disasters (the simple 3-2-1 approach)

A good backup plan doesn’t need to be fancy, it needs to be hard to break.

The simplest version of the 3-2-1 approach:

• 3 copies of your blog (your live site plus two backups)
• 2 different places (for example, your host plus cloud storage)
• 1 offsite copy (so a single hack or server failure can’t wipe everything)

This matters because real problems are rarely neat:

• A hack can encrypt or delete files on your server.
• A bad update can corrupt the database.
• A hosting outage can take both your site and your host’s backup system offline.
• A stolen laptop can take your “local backup” with it.

So the rule is simple: don’t keep your only backup in the same place as the thing you’re protecting.

Retention is the part most beginners skip. You don’t just want “a backup”. You want a history. If a problem started quietly two weeks ago (spam links injected, malware added, database slowly corrupted), yesterday’s backup might already be infected.

A practical retention target for most blogs is 30 to 90 days. If your storage allows it, keep a longer monthly archive as well.

Choose your schedule: daily, weekly, and before big changes

Match the backup schedule to how often your site changes.

Rules of thumb that work:

• Daily backups: active blogs, news sites, multi-author sites, anything with regular comments or updates.
• Weekly backups: low-posting blogs where content changes rarely.
• Always run a manual backup before big changes: theme swaps, plugin updates, redesigns, migrations, and major edits.

If you run an online shop or a membership site, you may need backups more often, even near real-time. Posts are one thing, customer orders are another.

If you want a quick sanity check, imagine losing everything since your last backup. Would that be a mild annoyance, or a week of unpaid work? Set your schedule based on the honest answer.

Store backups offsite (Google Drive, Dropbox, or cloud storage)

Offsite storage means your backup lives somewhere your website can’t easily destroy.

Common options:

• Google Drive or Dropbox: easy to set up, friendly interfaces, good for most bloggers.
• S3-style storage (cloud object storage): good for larger sites and long retention, often low cost, but a bit less beginner-friendly.

Whichever you pick, treat the storage account like it holds the keys to your home:

• Use a strong, unique password.
• Turn on two-step login.
• Don’t share the account with casual collaborators.

If your backup tool offers encryption, use it. Backups can contain user data, email addresses, and admin usernames. A stolen backup can be as bad as a hacked site.

For a clear overview of WordPress backup methods and what to store, see Jetpack’s guide to backing up WordPress.

Set up automated backups on popular blog platforms

Automation is where backups go from “good intentions” to “it actually happens”. You want a system that runs when you’re busy, tired, or travelling.

Below are the main paths for the most common platforms.

WordPress: use a backup plugin with one-click restore

For most WordPress bloggers, a backup plugin is the simplest, safest start. Well-known options include UpdraftPlus, Jetpack Backup, BlogVault, and Duplicator. The best choice is the one you’ll keep running.

A clean setup flow looks like this:

1. Install a reputable backup plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select files plus database (not just one).
3. Connect remote storage (Google Drive or Dropbox are easy first choices).
4. Set a schedule (daily or weekly, based on how you publish).
5. Set retention (for example, keep 30 to 90 days).
6. Run your first backup right away.
7. Turn on email alerts, so you know if backups fail.

Many site owners choose UpdraftPlus because it’s straightforward for scheduled offsite backups. If your blog updates constantly, a service that offers real-time backups can reduce the gap between “last backup” and “latest post”.

One warning that saves heartbreak: don’t rely on your host’s backup as your only copy. Host backups are useful, but they can fail, be limited, or be hard to restore quickly. For a broader breakdown of backup approaches, including manual options, Bluehost’s WordPress backup guide is a helpful reference.

Blogger, Ghost, and hosted builders: exports, downloads, and safe storage

If you’re not on WordPress, you can still build a strong routine. It just looks a bit different.

Blogger

• Use Blogger’s export tool to download your content as an XML file.
• Save that file to an offsite folder (Google Drive makes sense here).
• If you’ve uploaded lots of images, also save a separate media copy if possible.

Ghost

• Use Ghost’s export tool to download content (usually JSON).
• Make sure you also back up your images and theme files, especially if self-hosted.
• If you want to automate a self-hosted Ghost backup, this walkthrough on automating Ghost backups explains a practical approach without making it feel like a computer science degree.

Hosted builders (Wix, Squarespace, others)

• Use any available export option, but don’t assume it includes everything.
• Manually save key media: brand images, lead magnets, PDFs, and any videos you own.
• Keep copies of important text in a separate document store if the platform limits exports.

A small habit that pays off: keep a folder named something like Blog Backups, then subfolders by month. Add a tiny text file called changes.txt where you note what changed that week (new theme, new form plugin, major page edits). When you restore, that note stops you guessing.

If you ever plan to move platforms, backups are also your safety net. Real migration stories highlight how small “gotchas” can trip you up, which makes careful backups even more important. This personal write-up on moving from WordPress to Ghost is a good reminder to back up before you touch anything.

For WordPress-specific alternatives and a quick comparison of methods, this 2026 WordPress backup overview lays out common approaches in one place.

Test your backups, practise a restore, and keep your plan tidy

A backup you’ve never restored is a bit like a fire extinguisher you’ve never checked. It might work. It might also be empty.

Testing doesn’t have to be stressful or time-consuming. The goal is to prove two things:

1. Your backup files are complete (database and files, including media).
2. You know the restore steps before you’re panicking.

Make it a small monthly routine. Put it on your calendar like a bill you pay to protect your time.

Do a monthly test restore (before you need it)

The safest way to test is to restore somewhere that isn’t your live blog.

Options include a staging site from your host, a spare WordPress install, or a temporary test domain. Once restored, check the things that tend to break first:

• Homepage loads and looks right
• A few recent posts open
• Images display (no broken thumbnails)
• Contact forms work
• You can log in as admin

Keep a short note somewhere that answers: where backups are stored, which plugin or tool you used, and the exact restore steps. In a crisis, you want a recipe card, not a treasure hunt.

Common backup mistakes that lead to lost content

Most backup failures aren’t “bad luck”. They’re predictable.

Watch out for these:

• Backups stored only on the same server as your site
• Backing up database only or files only
• Never testing a restore
• Forgetting the media library, then restoring posts with missing images
• Keeping too little history (only the last one or two backups)
• Weak cloud account security, then losing both site and backups to one hacked login

Fixing any one of these makes your blog safer. Fixing all of them makes it hard to lose content by accident.

Conclusion

Losing a blog feels personal because it is personal. It’s your time, your ideas, your proof that you showed up and kept writing. The good news is that backing up your blog isn’t complicated once you treat it as a habit, not a one-off task.

Pick one method today, automate it, then set a monthly reminder to test a restore. If you want a simple starter plan, use this: daily database backup, weekly full backup (files plus database), offsite storage, 90-day history.

Do that, and the next time something breaks, you won’t panic. You’ll restore, make a cup of tea, and get back to publishing.