Okay, so the thing with databases is that everyone is using a slightly different version.
Another thing with databases is that not all end-users have direct access to them.
That is why I recommend everyone have at least some hands on experience with their site, so that they know where everything is and have access - you should be able to control your own site for goodness sake.
If you don't have access to your database, contact your web developer or hosting company and ask them how to get a hold of it.
Always make a backup first.
Never, every do anything to your database without first making a backup and storing it somewhere safe.
The last thing you need is for something to go wrong and you lose everything.
Even if you don't personally know how to restore from a backup, you can get your hosting company to do it for you but if you've lost everything and didn't save it... then you can't do anything about it.
In my [website emergency survival guide]({% post_url 2011-09-09-website-fix %} "Website Emergency Survival Plan"), I also recommend making regular backups of your website even outside of maintenance.
Maintaining a database essentially means optimizing.
Databases are clunky and klutzy and accidentally store a lot of extra, meaningless data and that makes your website bloated and slow.
That is no good.
There are usually tools included that will optimize the database for you.
That is very good.
The trick to learning how to do a backup or run the optimization is to search Google for the following sentences:
- "How to back up a ________ database"
AND
- "How to optimize a ________ database"
Alternatively, you can get in touch with your hosting company and ask them what they recommend.
Here's a video with some of these thoughts if you'd prefer to watch:
The real reason I am sharing this with you.
Honestly, I hate dealing with tech posts. They get outdated in a week. A month, if you're lucky.
Here's the biggest take aways:
- Be aware that you have a database that is storing your website.
- Be aware that it will be best for you if you make database backups regularly.
- Be aware that your website will perform better if you get your database optimized regularly.
If you're not sure whether your site runs on a database, just ask your web developer or your hosting company.
Don't be afraid to reach out to these people. It's their job to help you.