diff --git a/website/source/docs/upgrading/index.html.md b/website/source/docs/upgrading/index.html.md
index 51f15ce14..2b3ac4613 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/upgrading/index.html.md
+++ b/website/source/docs/upgrading/index.html.md
@@ -14,9 +14,13 @@ These are general upgrade instructions for Vault for both non-HA and HA setups.
 _Please ensure that you also read any version-specific upgrade notes which can be
 found in the sidebar._
 
-**Always** back up your data before upgrading! Vault does not make
-backwards-compatibility guarantees for its data store. If you need to roll back
-to a previous version of Vault, you should roll back your data store as well.
+!> **IMPORTANT NOTE:** Always back up your data before upgrading! Vault does not
+make backward-compatibility guarantees for its data store. Simply replacing the
+newly-installed Vault binary with the previous version will not cleanly
+downgrade Vault, as upgrades may perform changes to the underlying data
+structure that make the data incompatible with a downgrade. If you need to roll
+back to a previous version of Vault, you should roll back your data store as
+well.
 
 ## Testing the Upgrade