Definition

Website versioning: definition and how it works

Versioning is the preservation of every successive state of a website: each change is dated, attributed to the person who made it and described. It shows who changed what and when, and lets you undo a specific change in a few minutes. It differs from a backup, which restores the whole site as it was on a given date.

What each version keeps

A version records three things: what changed (the lines added, removed or edited), who changed it and when. A short description says why. The history reads like a log: you can find the day a price changed, the page affected and the person who asked for it.

The most widely used tool is Git, the storage format for code that the whole development industry uses. The code of a versioned site lives in a Git repository, with its complete history.

Versioning and backups

A backup is a snapshot of the whole site at a given moment. Restoring it puts everything back as it was, including wiping out the good changes made since. It protects against losing the site; a backup that has never been test-restored is an assumption.

Versioning covers each change taken separately. You can undo Tuesday's change without touching Thursday's. The two complement each other: on a WordPress site, off-server backups remain essential, because the content lives in a database that the theme's repository does not track.

Why it becomes essential with AI

When a single instruction to an AI can change hundreds of pages, you need to see exactly what changed and to roll it back in one step. Versioning makes each change readable before publication and reversible afterwards.

It also answers the ownership question. A client who leaves with their files and the complete version history can hand their site to any developer, without rebuilding anything.

Example

Take a fictional business that removes a service from its site on Monday, across 25 pages. On Wednesday, it adds a new team page. On Thursday, management decides to keep the removed service after all.

With versioning, Monday's change is undone on its own: the 25 pages get the service back, and Wednesday's team page stays online. With only Sunday's backup, the business would have had to choose between losing the team page and redoing the rollback by hand.

How we read it

On our AI-managed websites, every change is dated, documented and reversible. One click is enough to go back to the previous version while the site keeps serving your visitors. The code and its history belong to you, during the engagement as well as after.

Before taking over an existing site, we ask where the history of its changes is kept. Without a history, no one can say when a page changed or who modified it: that is what versioning makes possible.

Not to be confused with

Backup: A backup restores the whole site to a given date. Versioning lets you undo one specific change without touching the others.
WordPress revisions: WordPress keeps revisions for posts and pages. Settings, the theme and plugins have no such history by default.
Staging site: A staging site is a copy where a change is prepared before going live. Versioning keeps a record of every change made, live or not.

Related concepts

Related services

Frequently asked questions

If I already have backups, do I need versioning?

They do not do the same job. A backup protects you if the site disappears. Versioning lets you undo one specific change and see who made it. Without it, undoing a change means restoring the whole site and losing everything done since.

Do I keep the version history if I change providers?

It depends on your contract and on the tool. On our AI-managed websites, you leave with all the files and the complete version history, in a Git repository that any developer can pick up. Elsewhere, ask the question before you sign.

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