How do I know if my website has been hacked?

The most common sign is a redirect you didn’t set up. A visitor clicks your link and lands somewhere else entirely, often an unrelated product page or a suspicious-looking site. This usually means malicious code has been injected somewhere in your site’s files, and it’s often invisible if you’re logged in as an admin, since some attacks specifically hide themselves from logged-in users.

Check your list of admin users. If there’s a username you don’t recognise with full access to your site, that’s a serious sign. It means changing all passwords immediately, not just removing that one account.

Google sometimes flags compromised sites directly in search results, with a warning that the site “may be hacked” appearing under your listing. If you see this, or if your hosting provider contacts you about suspicious activity or suspends your account outright, treat it as confirmed, not just a possibility.

Slower load times, unexpected pop-ups, or content appearing on your site that you didn’t add are all worth investigating too, though these can occasionally have other causes. The pattern that matters is anything appearing on your site that nobody on your team put there.

If you suspect a compromise, act quickly. Change all passwords, including hosting and any admin accounts, contact your host, and get someone to check the site’s files properly rather than just removing what’s visible – the same security fundamentals that make this less likely to happen again. Hidden backdoors left behind often mean a site gets reinfected within days if the cleanup isn’t thorough.

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