Hacked WordPress website? Let's fix it.
If your WordPress website has been hacked, here's what to do right now, what we do to clean it up, and how we stop it happening again.
What to do right now
- Change your passwords for the WordPress admin, your hosting account and any FTP accounts. Use brand new ones.
- Don't delete anything. The files show how they got in, and we need them.
- Screenshot what you've seen: odd pages, redirects to other websites, warnings from Google or your browser, strange emails.
- Get in touch. Ring 0808 175 3775 (10:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday) or email help@better.hosting.
How WordPress websites get hacked
Nobody is sat there targeting your plumbing business. Bots crawl the web looking for WordPress websites running old plugins with known holes in them, and for login pages they can hammer with guessed passwords. If yours has either, it'll get found eventually.
A website that's been cleaned up and not fixed gets hacked again. Somebody removed the dodgy files and left the way in wide open.
What we do
- Find how they got in, so we can close it.
- Remove the malicious code and anything they've added, like hidden pages and admin accounts.
- Restore clean files from a backup where there is one.
- Update WordPress, your theme and your plugins, and remove the ones you don't use.
- Reset passwords and security keys.
- Ask Google to review the website if it's been flagged as unsafe.
- Check the pages, forms and emails work before we hand it back.
How we stop it happening again
Cleaning up a hack without changing how the website is looked after is how you end up on this page twice. Once it's clean, we move the website onto Better, where it gets:
- WordPress and plugin updates every month, checked afterwards
- Brute force attack protection on the login page
- Security and uptime monitoring around the clock
- Daily backups kept with a separate provider, so there's always a clean copy to go back to
- A monthly audit and a report showing what we did
We hate spammers and hackers as much as you do. Probably more, we see what they leave behind.
Your website, checked every month
Every month we go through your website, fix what we find and send you a report. You won't need to chase us for it.
- Page speed on mobile and desktop
- Uptime
- SSL certificate
- Broken links
- Redirects
- Backups
- Security
- Search Console clicks and rankings
- Visitors and where they came from
- Contact form and email checks
Each report links to your own dashboard. It keeps every report we've sent, lets you compare months side by side, and combines a few months into one report when you need to show the board how the year went.
yourwebsite.co.uk
August report
How fast does your site load?
Mobile
91
Desktop
98
Visitors
4,812
+12%
Search clicks
1,264
+8%
Key events
37
+5
Security
- SSL certificate valid
- Backups: 31 of 31 days
- No broken links found
- WordPress and 14 plugins updated
Work we've completed
Compressed 22 large images on the services pages. Fixed a redirect loop on the old blog address.
Three plans, prices on the page
Switching to Better
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Book a call
Tell us about your website and what's been going wrong. You'll speak to Craig.
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We look at your website
We check how it's built, how it's hosted and what needs fixing, and tell you what we find before you sign up.
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We move it for you
We move your WordPress website onto our hosting and set up the backups, updates and monitoring.
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We check everything works
We go through the pages, forms and emails on the new hosting before we call it done.
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Your first report
At the end of the month you get your first report, and a link to your own dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
My WordPress website has been hacked. What should I do first?
Change the passwords for your WordPress admin, your hosting and any FTP accounts. Don't delete the website or start editing files. Take screenshots of anything odd you've seen, then get in touch with us so we can find out how they got in.
How do hackers get into WordPress websites?
Mostly through plugins and themes that haven't been updated, and through weak or reused passwords that get guessed by bots trying thousands of combinations. That second one is called a brute force attack.
Will it happen again?
If the hole they came in through is still there, yes. That's why cleaning up is only half the job. On Better, your website is updated every month, protected against brute force attacks, monitored around the clock and backed up every day with a separate provider.
Google says my website is unsafe. Can you fix that?
Once the website is clean, the warning can be removed by asking Google to review it through Search Console. We do that as part of the clean-up.
Can you look after a website someone else built?
Yes, as long as it runs on WordPress. We look at it first, tell you what we find, then move it onto our hosting for you.
Who is behind Better?
Better is run by Genius Division, the web design agency in Barnsley. We've been building websites since 2010. Better is how we look after them once they're live.