How to Backup Your Real Estate WordPress Website
What if your website went down today? It could cost you commissions, leads, and new business opportunities especially if your website stayed down for a long time.
If you don’t currently have your real estate WordPress IDX website backed up, you are running the risk of losing everything should something happen.
But don’t worry, I will show you a free WordPress plugin that you can install to your WordPress IDX website and it will automatically back up your real estate website on the schedule you set.
This could be daily (recommended) or weekly or monthly.
Having your real estate WordPress website backed up will give you comfort knowing your website is safe should something ever happen to it.
Side Note: Some website hosting companies like Siteground, offer a free backup tool also if you prefer to have your hosting company store backup copies. Learn more about fast website speed by choosing a reliable web hosting service.
Want more step by step tutorial videos? Subscribe to my YouTube Channel – Nick Foy TV and browse all current videos on marketing, websites, real estate tips, etc.
How to Use Updraft Plus to Backup Your WordPress IDX Website
Step 1: Login to Your WordPress Dashboard
To access your WordPress dashboard, visit your domain name URL link and add the extension “/wp-admin” to it. For example JohnDoe.com/wp-admin and this will open up the login page.
Step 2: Access the Plugins Page
Once logged in, find the “plugins” tab down the left hand side of the WordPress dashboard panel. A little menu might drop down when you hover the word “plugins” and you may see the option to click on “Add New”
Or if you loaded the plugins page that shows all of your installed WordPress plugins you currently use to run your real estate IDX website, then look near the top of the screen for the “Add New” button.
Step 3: Search for Updraft Plus in the Plugin Store
Once the plugin store page loads, find the search bar in the top right corner of the page.
Enter in “Updraft Plus” and hit search.
When you see the plugin populate, click “Install” and after about 5 seconds you’ll see the words “Activate” appear instead of Install.
Once you click “Activate,” the page will reload back to your installed plugins page. Now Updraft Plus is active and its time to set up the backup settings for your real estate IDX website.
Step 4: Find the Updraft Plus link in the WP Dashboard Settings
Scroll the left side dashboard tool bar and find the link that says Settings. A menu will pop open with more links and find the one that says UpdraftPlus Backups.
It won’t show up in your WordPress dashboard settings list of tabs until it’s been activated.
Step 5: Set Your Backup Frequency
Notice the 5 different tabs that you can click around on the BackupPlus settings page. Find the tab that says “Settings”
It will then have frequency options:
- File Backup Schedule
- Database Backup Schedule
For File Backup Schedule I like to choose Weekly if my website isn’t adding new content that frequently.
If you add a blog post daily or create new pages on your real estate website daily then adding a Daily backup frequency might fit you better.
For Database Backup Schedule I would recommend a daily backup frequency.
It will ask how many copies you want to retain for both and I set both to 2 copies.
Step 6: Choose Your Remote Storage
Next on the settings tab you’ll see a Choose Your Remote Storage heading. Underneath will be many options of cloud storage systems like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azur, or even FTP.
Click the one you prefer to use.
I backup my websites to Dropbox so that’s the one I would click when I set up this plugin myself.
Scroll down and click “Save”
Step 7: Set Up Your Cloud Storage
Once you click Save in the previous step, the page will reload and it will auto-load the set up for the cloud storage option you chose.
For me, Dropbox pops up asking me to connect to my Dropbox account. Then I follow the set up step prompts and click links it asks me to click until everything is verified and connected.
Step 8: Run an Initial Backup
Once your UpdraftPlus Backup plugin is set up and connected to a storage system, you can run the first backup of your real estate IDX WordPress website to get your files and database backed up today!
It will also have a scheduled backup day (usually the next day) if you want to skip this step and let it backup on its own.
From there, the plugin will work on schedule, backing up your files and database using the frequency settings you selected.
You can check your cloud storage system later after backups have occurred to ensure the files are in fact inside your cloud storage folder (usually labeled UpdraftPlus).
Want more free plugins that add features to your website? See my list of plugins I recommend using for your real estate WordPress IDX website here on my resources page.
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