How to Back Up & Restore Your WordPress Website (Beginner Guide for Nigerians 2025)

Imagine waking up one morning and finding out your website has disappeared — hacked, corrupted, or accidentally deleted. This happens more often than many Nigerian website owners think. The only real protection is having a proper backup. With regular backups, you can restore your site in minutes instead of losing everything forever.

This guide explains exactly how to back up AND restore your WordPress website, even if you are a complete beginner.

❗ Why Backups Matter

Your WordPress site can break for many reasons:

• ⚠️ Server failure
• ⚠️ Hacked website
• ⚠️ Plugin or theme update problem
• ⚠️ File deletion or human error
• ⚠️ Malware infection

Without a backup, you lose everything — posts, plugins, theme settings, pages, images, and customer data. With backups, you simply restore and keep moving.

✔️ Understanding What Needs to Be Backed Up

A full WordPress backup includes:

• ✔ Your WordPress files (themes, plugins, uploads, configuration files)
• ✔ Your database (posts, pages, settings, users, WooCommerce orders)

Both are required to bring a site back to life.

⚙️ Option 1: Backup Using Your Hosting (Recommended)

If your hosting provider includes automatic backups, this is the easiest and most reliable solution. For example, NairaHost includes JetBackup and other tools for restoring files and databases in one click.

Typical cPanel backup locations:

cPanel → JetBackup
cPanel → Backup
cPanel → File Manager + Home Directory Backup

Benefits:

• ✔ No plugin required
• ✔ Entire site backed up, not just WordPress
• ✔ One-click restore if anything breaks
• ✔ Safer & faster than free plugins

✔️ Option 2: Backup Using a WordPress Plugin

Plugins are helpful when your host doesn’t include backups or you want to store backups externally.

Recommended plugins:

• ✔ UpdraftPlus (easy & beginner-friendly)
• ✔ All-in-One WP Migration
• ✔ Duplicator
• ✔ JetBackup for WordPress (if supported)

With UpdraftPlus you can back up automatically to:

• ✔ Google Drive
• ✔ Dropbox
• ✔ OneDrive
• ✔ Amazon S3

⚙️ Option 3: Manual Backup (Advanced Users)

If you want full control, you can back up manually:

Files:

• ✔ Log in to File Manager or FTP
• ✔ Compress the entire public_html folder
• ✔ Download ZIP file

Database:

• ✔ Open phpMyAdmin
• ✔ Select database → Export → Download SQL file

✔️ How to Restore Your Website

Using cPanel Backup (Easiest)

1. Open JetBackup or Backup tool
2. Choose restore point
3. Click Restore
4. Wait 1–5 minutes

Using UpdraftPlus Plugin

• Install UpdraftPlus on a fresh WordPress site
• Upload your backup files
• Click Restore

Manual Restore

1. Upload website files via cPanel or FTP
2. Create a new database
3. Import the SQL file via phpMyAdmin
4. Update wp-config.php with new DB details

⚠️ Common Backup Mistakes to Avoid

• ❗ Only backing up files but not database
• ❗ Storing backups on the same server (lose everything if server dies)
• ❗ Not testing restoration
• ❗ Relying ONLY on plugins
• ❗ Never backing up before updates

✔️ Best Practices for WordPress Backups

• ✔ Back up at least weekly (daily for busy sites)
• ✔ Always back up before updating plugins or WordPress
• ✔ Store backups in multiple locations
• ✔ Use automated hosting backups where possible
• ✔ Test restoring at least once

Final Thoughts

A backup is not optional — it is your insurance policy for everything you’ve built. The moment you need it, it becomes priceless. Whether you use cPanel, a plugin, or a manual method — just make sure you have a plan.

If you want hosting that includes automatic backups and one-click WordPress restores, visit https://nairahost.com.ng and choose any hosting plan. Backup protection is included on most accounts.