Getting backup of your web site is also of as important as having your PCs backed up.
Even if most of the hosting services claim to have regular backups, you have to do backups in your part as well. In case you corrupted/deleted some files your self, the hosting service provider’s backup won’t help

Items to backup from your web site

Depending on the size and type of the website you are having, the backup needs vary. If you have a website with just static content, then including the website source in the backup plan should be sufficient.
But, if you are running a web site driven by a data base and scripts, then your backup should cover all these to ensure a proper recovery

The source files

You should regularly take the backup of the source (static pages as well as the scripts -PHP, ASP, Perl etc ) of your web site. The backup should include any third party source (the scripts for the Blog, Forum software etc ) that you installed on the web site as well. If you keep an up to date copy of your web site in your PC, then backing up that should be sufficient.
If not, you will need to FTP to your web site and download all the source in regular interval.

Data bases

Most of the websites contain a good portion of the website generated dynamically. Blogs and forums are examples. The content comes from the database. So in this case taking backup of just the source is not sufficient. You will have to take the backup of the database as well.

If your website is using MySQL database, you can use PHPMyAdmin interface to backup your data. Most of the hosting services support MySQL and most of the scripts- blogs , forums etc - put their data in the MySQL database.
Remember, you have to take the backup of the entire database; not just some tables. You have to get PHPMyAdmin to export all the data in the database to a file and then download and backup the file safely.

However, if the database is big, it may be difficult to backup using PHPMyAdmin. You will have to use mysqldump command to export the data to a file and then download the data file.
See: this article on mysql backup for an example.

Emails

Although you may be downloading the emails from your web server to local computer, it is just important to include the emails also as part of the web site backup.

Restoring and restore drills

Just like any other backup, your web site backup will be good only if the web site could be restored quickly from your backups. You can test the sufficiency of your backups by running restore drills. But how to run restore drills? It is not recommendable to run test restore drill on your live web site.

The solution is to have a local test web site (running on a local machine) just for the testing purpose. Configuring a local web site is not very difficult; you can download Apache, Mysql and PHP and install them and create a test web site.

Alternatively, you can download a pre-configured vmware virtual appliance that has all the required software installed and ready to go.

You have got a backup plan, all the data are backed up locally as well as remotely according to their priority The backup is automated. You are sure that the the backups run at the pre-determined time slots.
However, there is one more important step that you should be doing.
That is to do regular backup-restore drills. Overseeing the need for testing the backups can have disastrous results when recovery is essential

Restore drills can expose the glitches in your backups

Could you locate the right backup in short time? If this is a remote backup, could you get to the remote backup service provider within the time limits you expected?
There could be a number of issues that you could face when you or on to the restore process.
When you do the restore drill, document each issue that you faced and the solutions for each. Keep the document safe at a well known location. You will be glad that you did it when an actual restore scenario occurs.

You will identify pieces of data that you missed in your original backup plan

It is common to miss certain pieces of data when you originally plan your backup (See categorizing the data for better backups). Restore drills can help you identify the missing pieces and make your backups more complete

The level of support from the remote backup service provider

As you face problems in restoring the data from the remote servers of your remote backup service provider, keep calling them for support. This will give you a good understanding of the level and the capability of the service the service provider is capable of providing. If it is not satisfactory, you can consider switching to another service provider.

The time to restore

The time to restore is more important than the time to backup. The time to restore equals the time of disruption for the business. So is costly. You could measure the time to restore and find the bottle necks during restore drills. This will help you tune up the process and in turn, reduce the time to backup. Of course, do document the bottle necks that you face and fixes for them as you progress.

Incremental backups can cause long time to restore If this is the case, then you have to increase the frequency of full backups

How frequently should I test?

You should run backup restore drills whenever you make changes to the backup system/process.

In addition, the restore drills should be conducted in regular intervals. Depending on the criticality of the data the interval could vary (once in a month, twice in a month ) but do not make the interval too long.

Documentation is essential

One important outcome of the restore drill will essentially be the documentation. (Lets call it “The backup restore instruction manual”). Note down every single issue that you faced and the fixes for them. It should be clear enough for another person to take the document and restore herself without your involvement.

1. The first page should list the steps for restore clearly

2. There should be a section that covers the issues that can occur and the fixes for them
You should note down even the most minor issues and their fixes - like “if the customer support number of the remote backup service provider is not working , then call this alternative direct number.”

3. Take a print out of the document and keep it in a safe place and let the key persons know the location of the document. Having the printout is important. This is to restore a damaged machine after all : )

Restore test for Live PCs

One most common question is how to conduct restore drills if the machines are in use. You should either keep a spare machine to test the restore drills or grab a spare HDD to run the tests. Either way, it is important that you run the restore drills regularly, for every piece of data you backup.