12 Signs Your WordPress Site May Be Hacked and How to Fix It (Step-By-Step Guide)

As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience securing WordPress sites, I know firsthand how damaging hacks can be. But with the right detection and response, you can get your site cleaned up and locked down.

In this detailed guide, I‘ll share the top signs your WordPress site may be hacked based on common attack methods I‘ve seen, along with an action plan to recover and prevent future attacks.

How WordPress Sites Get Hacked

Before diving into the warning signs, it helps to understand why WordPress sites are targets and how they get compromised in the first place.

According to Sucuri, WordPress powers over 35% of all websites as of 2022, making it the world‘s most popular CMS. Unfortunately this dominant market share also makes it appeal to hackers looking to infect as many sites as possible.

The main attack vectors for WordPress sites are:

• Vulnerable plugins and themes – Plugins extend WordPress‘ core functionality, but vulnerable 3rd party plugins are a leading cause of hacked sites according to Wordfence. The same goes for themes. Flaws let hackers inject malicious code.

• Weak user passwords – Brute force attacks that crack weak passwords via repeated login guesses often succeed in gaining admin access.

• Outdated software – Unpatched bugs in older WordPress core, plugins and themes give hackers a path in.

• Susceptible web hosts – Cheap shared hosting with lax security practices puts sites at risk.

In many cases, exploits are automated using malware kits available on the dark web. Even novice hackers can compromise WordPress sites with turnkey tools.

Now let‘s explore the clearest signals your site may be hacked.

12 Signs Your WordPress Site May Be Hacked

1. Sudden Drop in Traffic

Has your analytics data shown a recent unexplained drop in website traffic?

Steep declines in organic search and direct referrals can mean:

• Your site redirects visitors to spam sites without consent.
• Google has flagged your site as dangerous and reduced search visibility.

According to Google‘s Transparency Report, the search engine finds nearly 10,000 unsafe sites per day and often suppresses them in results.

Unexpected traffic drops are one of the first and most obvious red flags of a potential hack.

2. Strange New Links

Hackers often add links across your content pointing to spam sites or questionable online pharmacies.

These boost search rankings and earn commissions for hackers when unsuspecting visitors click through and buy.

Carefully inspect your site‘s footer, sidebars and content for any new links to unfamiliar domains. Their presence likely means your site‘s security has been breached.

3. Visible Homepage Defacement

While less common today, having your homepage visibly vandalized by hackers still happens. They‘ll often leave their name, logo or a taunting message.

Sucuri reported that over 52,000 websites were defaced in 2016 alone. It‘s a clear signal of an intrusion.

Don‘t leave the defacement public – take your site offline immediately until you can remove the vandalism and its underlying cause.

4. Locked Out of Your Site

Suddenly unable to log into your dashboard or access wp-admin is another glaring warning.

Hackers often delete or disable the admin account to lock you out of your own site. They may also insert code that makes the login URL inaccessible.

Regaining access via phpMyAdmin or other methods won‘t fix the root problem. You need to investigate how access was revoked and secure that intrusion vector.

5. Mysterious New Accounts

Watch for new WordPress user accounts you didn‘t create yourself.

Hackers often programmatically create new accounts with admin privileges as backdoors for future access. The usernames may look randomized.

These phantom accounts can be tough to remove, since they were added externally not through the WordPress dashboard. But their presence confirms your site has been breached.

6. Strange New Files

Using FTP, check your /wp-content/ folder and other directories for any unfamiliar PHP files, suspicious images or new plugins/themes.

The Wordfence 2021 Threat Report found over 450,000 malware variants introduced through hacked sites last year alone.

Seeing foreign files you didn‘t add means hackers have infiltrated your site and are trying to establish a foothold for further exploitation.

7. Frequent Site Unavailability

Is your site often offline or unresponsive? This can be caused by:

• Brute force login attempts overwhelming your server
• Malicious bots slamming your site with junk traffic
• Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks

These attacks aim to take your site offline by bombarding it with bogus requests from thousands of IP addresses worldwide.

Check your server logs to identify and block suspicious traffic sources. But sophisticated botnets routinely rotate their IPs to evade defenses.

8. Unusual Server Log Activity

Your web server logs record all site activity and errors. Examine them closely for potential mischief like:

• Repeated failed login attempts from foreign IPs
• Spikes in overall traffic from unknown sources
• Warnings and errors related to unexpected file changes

The IP addresses and other details in your logs provide cyber forensics to help analyze an attack. Look for patterns of unauthorized access.

9. WordPress Emails Stop Working

If your contact form, subscription notifications and other WordPress emails suddenly stop sending, your web host‘s mail server may be compromised.

Hackers exploit security flaws in SMTP servers to relay huge volumes of spam. This disrupts email delivery from affected domains.

Try sending yourself a test email from your web host domain. If delivery fails, their mail server could be impacted. Report it immediately.

10. Strange Cron Jobs

The cron scheduler on web servers lets authorized users run timed jobs. But hackers also abuse this to automate malicious tasks.

With a plugin like WP Crontrol, audit all cron events on your site. Look for any unfamiliar ones not created by one of your own plugins.

Mysterious cron jobs likely signify an intruder has accessed your server and is up to no good.

11. Hijacked Search Appearance

Sophisticated hackers won‘t damage your actual site. Instead, they manipulate how it appears in search engines.

By modifying title tags, meta descriptions and other elements only visible to search bots, they promote unrelated spam sites through your content.

You may suddenly see altered search snippets for your important pages directing users elsewhere. This "cloaking" aims to improve spam site rankings by deceiving search algorithms.

12. Unexpected Popups or Redirects

Have new browser popups, popunders or redirects started appearing when visitors view your site?

These nuisance tactics aim to barrage your site visitors with ads, offers and warnings. The average user will assume they‘re from your site, not knowing you‘ve been hacked.

As before, disabling these visible annoyances won‘t fix the underlying intrusion. You need to dig deeper to find and seal vulnerabilities.

What To Do If Your WordPress Site Is Hacked

Discovering your site has been compromised is upsetting, but try not to panic. I‘ve helped hundreds of clients successfully recover their hacked WordPress sites over the years.

Here is a step-by-step process I recommend for assessing, containing and cleaning up a WordPress intrusion:

Step 1: Take Your Site Offline Immediately

Log into your web host‘s control panel and disable your site. This will stop public access while you investigate and address the hack securely behind the scenes.

You want to halt any further abuse of your site and protect visitors from potential threats like malware.

Step 2: Notify Your Web Host

If your site is on shared hosting, reach out to your web host‘s technical support for assistance. Give them details of what you‘ve uncovered.

Depending on your host‘s policies, they may be able to help diagnose intrusion vectors, block suspicious IPs, run scans and possibly restore your site from a recent backup.

Step 3: Conduct a Complete Intrusion Audit

Thoroughly inspect your WordPress site for any signs of compromise outlined in this article.

Check for:

• Altered/deleted files and new unknown files
• Suspicious admin accounts
• Strange cron jobs
• Hijacked email accounts
• Backdoors, injections or redirects

Documenting the scope of the intrusion will help focus your clean up efforts.

Step 4: Find and Close Backdoors

A skilled malware scanner like Sucuri SiteCheck can detect malicious code giving attackers ongoing access.

You‘ll need to remove any discovered infections. Change all account passwords as well since these may be compromised.

Sealing backdoors is crucial – otherwise hackers can just reopen access after you clean the site.

Step 5: Fully Clean Your Site

With backdoors closed, perform a complete site audit using tools like Wordfence to find any remaining artifacts of the attack.

Carefully comb through:

• The database – for injected spam content or comments
• File directories – for malicious scripts, shells, dubious files
• The theme and plugins – for added malicious code

Also check for hidden spam links added to existing content. Remove anything suspicious.

Step 6: Harden Your Site Security

With your site now clean, take measures to harden its security against repeat attacks:

• Install a web application firewall to continually monitor for threats
• Limit login attempts and use strong passwords
• Disable unused plugins/themes
• Update to the latest software versions
• Limit user permissions and file writability

Proactively safeguarding your site is just as crucial as detecting and removing an intrusion.

Step 7: Restore From a Backup (If Needed)

For severe hacks, reverting your entire site to a known clean backup before the attack may be easier than a granular clean up.

Just be absolutely certain your backup copy itself does not contain any remnants of the hack. Test it offline first before restoring publicly.

Step 8: Monitor Your Site Closely

Once your site is restored and secured, keep a close eye on it for awhile.

Look for further signs of intrusion like another spam link injection or traffic spike – both could signal the hacker still has a way in.

Stay vigilant both manually and with security tools to ensure your fixes stick and the problem doesn‘t reemerge.

Protecting Your WordPress Site From Hacks

Recovering from a hack is a headache most would prefer to avoid. The best protection is proactive security hardening to prevent intrusions in the first place.

Based on extensive experience securing WordPress sites over the years, here are my top proactive tips to lock things down:

• Maintain up to date WordPress, plugins and themes – This patches identified security holes.

• Change default credentials – Don‘t use "admin" or default passwords which are easily guessed.

• Limit login attempts – Install brute force protection to lockout IPs after a few failed logins.

• Avoid pirated plugins and themes – These often contain backdoors allowing easy attacks.

• Minimize your plugins – Extra plugins increase potential weak points. Only use what you truly need.

• Invest in managed WordPress hosting – Cheap shared hosting is riskier than premium managed WP hosts.

• Install a security plugin – Web application firewalls like Wordfence provide real-time monitoring and threat blocking.

• Create regular backups – Maintain a recent copy of your site files and database in case malware strikes.

• Avoid "admin" as a username – It‘s the first account hackers target in password guessing.

Staying vigilant in security hardening makes most WordPress hacks preventable. But sites do still get compromised sometimes.

Knowing what to watch for, having a response plan and keeping reliable backups makes riding out an attack much easier if it happens.

I hope this guide gives you greater confidence in detecting and recovering from potential WordPress hacks. As a fellow webmaster, I‘m happy to answer any other questions you have!