Imagine the scene….
I’d been designing websites for a couple of years and I was still learning my way in business and being with clients.
I called myself a web designer and I was creating WordPress websites and I’d previously been creating Joomla websites.
I took the clients information, asked a couple of questions and created a website based on their logo. I cringe when I think of what my web design was back then. It was focussed on my client and not on their client. If my client said this is what they wanted I blindly created it.
No, the customer is not always right.
Back then I followed a lot of other web designers and we didn’t teach business owners how to maintain their own websites. I know I can hang my head in shame there. Unfortunately a lot of web designers still don’t teach their clients what to do with their WordPress website after it’s been delivered.
This website was one I’d created and I was about to update it technically. Upgrade it to a new version of WordPress and upgrade the plugins too. It was easy peasy.
I’m happily updating the website and then it crashed.
I’m staring at a white screen.
Where has the website gone?
I can feel my heart pounding. I frantically refresh the browser. There has been a critical error on this website.
I silently scream and swear. It may even have been out loud.
What do I do now?
I can’t, I just can’t go back to the client to say I’ve stuffed up their website. My business is over. I’ll never work again. I was doomed.
Can you tell I was spiralling?
I go to my friendly search engine and start searching for white screen of death in WordPress websites and critical errors.
I was trying to remember every breathing technique I’d ever heard of and I still wasn’t feeling calm.
I found a blog article with instructions. Great, what do I need to do?
I don’t remember how I solved it. I still remember the panic. I still remember the gut wrenching fear of failing. Failing my client, failing my business, failing my family and failing myself.
Once I got the website up and running, and no, I never told the client what happened, I vowed I would NEVER, EVER, EVER let that happen again.
How did others cope with this?
Perform a backup before doing an update. I’d heard of backups of course but until then I thought I was invincible. I knew I didn’t know everything but somehow I was still invincible.
It turned out I wasn’t.
I set up a training website and I tested heaps of backup plugins.
What did they backup? Where did the backup go? When I needed it, how did I perform a restore? Notice I didn’t say if I needed it, I said when.
When I found the backup plugin that I thought was gold (before you ask I no longer use that backup plugin), I placed that on all my new clients' websites. If a client came back to me I made sure to put a backup on their website too.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Learn from my mistakes and please, pretty please, ensure that you have a backup plugin on your WordPress website.
Here are some of the common objections to having a backup plugin that I hear:
- My hosting already does backup. Great, still have another one. Why? You can never have too many backups. Some hosting companies will charge you to restore a website.Some hosting companies you can’t get hold of when you need to either.
- I paid gazillions for my website so I’m sure that my website has a backup plugin. Please check. If you’re not sure how, read this blog post about protecting your website with a plugin backup. I have come across so many expensive websites that do NOT have backups, anti virus, malware checks or anything like that. You paid for the design and that’s all you received.
- I would have no idea what to do. I understand that. Still check to see if you have a backup plugin or have a plugin audit and I can check that for you. When clients come to me with a serious issue on their website the FIRST thing I ask is do you have a backup. Sometimes it’s easier to copy the error logs and restore a website so it’s there for your customers.
I know I’m repeating myself. Please, pretty please ensure that you have a backup plugin on your WordPress website.
I don’t want you to go through the panic that I went through.
Nowadays, do you know what happens if I do an update and something goes wrong? Yes, I still mentally swear, that bit hasn’t changed. No panic though. Why? If it's a serious issue I can restore from a website backup.
There’s a sense of relief and ease knowing that the website can be restored.
TL;DR Check your WordPress website for a backup plugin and ensure that it’s performing regular backups. Before doing an update yourself, perform a backup.
