SMACK HAPPY BLOG

Did someone hack your WordPress?

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| Nicole Hanusek |

What to do if someone has hacked your WordPress website. How do you know if your WordPress site has been hacked? Well there are a few telltale signs: There are links to viagra products or something similar that has nothing to do with your content. When visiting your site the browser warns you not to…

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What to do if someone has hacked your WordPress website.

How do you know if your WordPress site has been hacked?

Well there are a few telltale signs:

  1. There are links to viagra products or something similar that has nothing to do with your content.
  2. When visiting your site the browser warns you not to continue, with a big red page.
  3. You might have gotten an email from some Google product like Webmaster Tools telling you that your site has been compromised, or your hosting provider might have sent a similar email.
  4. Someone visiting your site, like a client or customer, might have contacted you and warned about that big red page.

Malware-attack-warning

What does this mean for you?

It means that you should have it cleaned up as quickly as possible. Contact your web developer, an online cleanup site, like Securi, or me. You want to jump on this right away because the longer your site is hijacked the worse it is for your website’s reputation. When your site is hacked Google will blacklist you — all of your SEO efforts will be out the door. It could take a while for Google to acknowledge that your site is clean again and you might have to build up your search reputation all over again.

What else do you need to do?

After your site has been cleaned up and restored you should change all passwords associated with it, this means your WordPress password and FTP if you use it. You should switch to SFTP if you can. I’d also recommend switching your site over to a more secure hosting provider that specializes in WordPress hosting. Personally, I love WP Engine and have a partnership with them. They offer wonderful features to help combat these nasty hackers who keep trying to mess with our stuff. On top of being more secure, they offer daily backups, daily malware scanning, core updates, excellent support and more. If you host your site with me I’ll also make sure all your plugins are updated frequently. Keeping plugins up-to-date reduces the risk of someone breaking in. You can review our WordPress Support Plans.

Anything else?

That’s it. Get your site cleaned up and get it moved to the better place.

Nicole Hanusek

Nicole Hanusek

Nikki Stormborn of the House Smack Happy, First of her Name, the Custom Coded, Queen of the Designs and the First Website, Nichole of the Great List of Typos, Breaker of Rules, and Mother of Puppies.

I've been designing and coding websites since 1998. Yep, that's before the Internet was popular! I currently live in San Francisco, but I started out in Cleveland, OH. In college my major was illustration and one day I was working in the computer lab and my colleague was looking for jobs in our industry. I thought to myself, "I should probably do that too!" So I sent my resume to every place that offered graphic design positions in my area. I interviewed at a web consulting company, and the owner asked me why I wanted the job. I didn't even know what the job was! He hired me anyway, and on the first day, the Art Director handed me a thick book and said, "here, learn HTML." And so I did, and here we are. I'm hooked.

What I like most about building websites is that I get to be creative visually and solve problems. Growing up, I was a huge fan of math and science, so the coding part of the job scratches that logic and trouble-shooting itch. I get to partake in the artsy side and analytical side - the best of both worlds!

My goal is to help make everyone's life easier. By building easy-to-use websites, I can help my clients, as well as their clients.