Skip to content

Can we use an advertising cookie?

It lets Google tell us which ads brought people here, and show our ads to people who've already visited. That's all it does. Decline and the site works exactly the same.

Hacked Website Repair

Discovering your website has been hacked is stressful. Understanding what happened, what to do, and how to prevent it helps you respond quickly and effectively.

How Websites Get Hacked

Most website hacks are not targeted attacks against your specific business. They are automated scans that look for known vulnerabilities across thousands of websites at once. The most common entry points are:

  • Outdated software: WordPress core, plugins, and themes with known security holes that have not been patched
  • Weak passwords: Simple admin passwords that can be guessed through automated brute force attacks
  • Vulnerable plugins: Third-party plugins with security flaws, especially abandoned plugins no longer receiving updates
  • Insecure hosting: Shared hosting environments where one compromised site can affect others on the same server
  • Stolen credentials: Login details obtained through phishing emails or data breaches on other sites

Signs Your Website Has Been Hacked

  • Your website redirects to a different site you do not recognize
  • Google shows a warning that your site may be hacked or contain malware
  • Strange content, links, or pages appear on your site that you did not create
  • Your website loads significantly slower than usual
  • You receive emails about password changes you did not request
  • Your hosting provider contacts you about suspicious activity
  • You cannot log into your admin dashboard
  • Your site shows pharmaceutical, gambling, or other spam content

What the Cleanup Process Involves

Professional hacked website repair typically follows these steps:

  1. Assessment: Identifying what was compromised, how the attacker got in, and what damage was done
  2. Containment: Taking the site offline or restricting access to prevent further damage
  3. Malware removal: Scanning all files and the database for malicious code and removing it
  4. Backdoor removal: Finding and removing hidden access points the hacker may have left for re-entry
  5. Software updates: Updating all software to current, secure versions
  6. Password resets: Changing all passwords including admin accounts, FTP, database, and hosting panel
  7. Security hardening: Implementing protections to prevent the same attack from succeeding again
  8. Monitoring: Watching the site for signs of reinfection in the weeks following cleanup

Preventing Future Attacks

  • Keep all software, plugins, and themes updated
  • Use strong, unique passwords for every account
  • Enable two-factor authentication on admin accounts
  • Remove unused plugins and themes
  • Choose reputable hosting with security monitoring
  • Install a web application firewall
  • Set up automated backups so you can restore quickly if needed
  • Limit admin access to only those who need it

The Business Impact of a Hacked Website

Beyond the immediate technical damage, a hacked website affects your business in several ways. Google may remove your site from search results until the malware is cleaned up, costing you traffic and leads. Customers who see security warnings may lose trust in your business. And if customer data was compromised, you may have legal notification obligations.

The cost of cleanup is almost always less than the cost of the damage caused by leaving a hacked site online. Acting quickly minimizes the impact on your search rankings, customer trust, and business reputation.

Related Guides

Website Maintenance & Updates

Regular maintenance prevents most hacks

 WordPress Maintenance

WordPress-specific security practices

Internet Crafters does hacked site cleanup

This is a la carte work, billed hourly rather than bundled into a package. You get an estimate and a confirmed scope before anything starts, so the number you approve is the number you pay.

Custom Development

$90/hr

1-hour minimum. We estimate the hours and confirm scope before starting.

What that covers here

  • Getting the site back online, which is the part that matters on day one
  • Finding how they got in, because cleaning the damage without closing the door just buys you a week
  • Removing injected spam pages and redirects, including the ones that only appear to search engines and not to you
  • Restoring from a clean backup where one exists, and rebuilding the affected pages where one does not
  • Requesting a review with Google once the site is clean, if it picked up a warning

The first hour is triage. What platform it runs on, when it was last updated, whether a backup exists that predates the break-in, and whether Google has flagged it. That hour tends to decide whether this is a cleanup or a rebuild, and it is better to know before committing to either.

What we would suggest instead, once

Almost every site we are called about after a hack is running a CMS with plugins on it. We will clean it up and keep maintaining it. We will also say once that a static site removes most of this category of problem, because there is no admin login to break into and no plugin to exploit. Whether that is worth a rebuild depends on your site, and it often is not.

How to get on the hourly rate

Ask. Hourly work is open to anyone, with no setup fee and nothing you have to buy first. We confirm the scope and the hours with you before any of them get spent.

Bigger pieces of work get scoped and quoted as a project rather than billed by the hour. Tell us what you need.

Get an estimate for this See every rate we charge

After the cleanup

The repair is the urgent part. What stops it happening again is a decision about what the site runs on, and that is worth making calmly a few weeks later.

Static versus a CMS Talk to us about your site