Malware…that one single word can be the cause of a huge headache and nightmare for any website owner. Malware Removal should be completed quickly by a competent professional.

Malware can infect any website, 40% of websites on the internet run on WordPress, the WordPress platform is an ideal target for malware infection.

While it’s an established fact that WordPress malware can pose a serious risk to your website security, the fact remains that WordPress malware removal is a job that requires a professional. You need the best experts to get the job done and ensure that your website doesn’t get infected again.

What is malware? And how do you know that your WordPress website has been infected by malware in the first place? We’ll be exploring malware further along with a brief guide on how to remove malware from WordPress websites.

So, let’s get going.

What Is Malware?

First, let’s tackle the biggest question of all: how do you define malware?

In the simplest of terms, malware is any malicious software that can take advantage of your website’s weaknesses. WordPress malware, then, is any malware that’s specifically targeted towards WordPress websites in particular.

WordPress malware has the potential to negatively impact your website’s performance on multiple levels. Whether it’s the website performance, SEO, or user experience, malware can impact all aspects of your website. This means, unless you can remove malware quickly, your website’s performance can seriously get affected.

How can a malware attack affect your WordPress website? Here’s a list of some of the common forms WordPress malware attacks can take:

• Unauthorized use of server resources as part of a botnet
• Excessive use of disk space
• Slowing down of the site
• Degradation of Google rankings
• Complete blacklisting on Google

From the above, you can easily understand that any form of malware can impact your WordPress website on multiple fronts. So, it’s best to be on the lookout for any signs of malware infection.

Signs Your WordPress Website Is Malware Inflected

WordPress Security should always be a priority, and constant vigilance is the key to ensuring website optimization. With that end in mind, here’s a few tell-tale signs that your WordPress website has a malware infection.

• Sudden dips or spikes in website traffic levels
• Spammy website links in your site content
• Defacement of the homepage or interior website pages
• Login problems
• Unauthorized WordPress user accounts
• Unknown server files and scripts
• Unresponsive web pages
• Unrecognized server log activity
• Inability to access WordPress emails
• Unauthorized scheduled tasks
• Incorrect meta tags or title tags in search results
• Suspicious pop-up ads
• Browser warnings
• Blocked ports
• Unrecognized website code

If you spot any of these signs on your WordPress website, your WordPress website could have a malware infection. You need to hire a WordPress Expert to remove the malware infection and help prevent future issues.

Steps To Remove Malware From Your WordPress Website

In general, removing malware from WordPress websites is a task that’s best left to WordPress security professionals. However, in case you’re technically inclined or are a WordPress expert yourself, you can follow the basic steps as outlined below.  You might not need to do all of these steps.

• Scan your WordPress site
• Take complete backups of the entire website and database content
• Download and examine the files you’ve backed up to ensure that everything is in order
• Delete all public files
• Uninstall and reinstall WordPress
• Reset all permalinks and passwords on your website
• Make sure you reinstall all the plugins and themes that you previously had in your WordPress installation
• Restore any necessary files from the backup cache
• Remove any default admin account
• Make sure you install security plugins

After the malware removal process is completed, you’ll have to use  Google Webmaster Tools to inform Google that your website clean.

Why It’s Best To Call In A Professional

The malware removal process isn’t as simple as the above-outlined steps. Unless you are a  WordPress expert, it’s best to hire a professional for the removal and prevention of future malware infections.

Malware removal is not a straightforward process. Although you might have got an impression from the above steps that it’s a simple process, we assure you that’s far from the truth.

When removing malware from your WordPress website, you’ll have to take care to ensure that you look in all of the folders and files of your WordPress website. Otherwise, your website stands a risk of getting infected by malware again.

Secondly, scouring a website for malware removal can result in you deleting or modifying essential system files. This can lead to the loss of critical website code, which will inevitably result in financial loss.

Finally, the most important reason for hiring a WordPress expert is that as a business owner, you need to focus on what you do best: running your business. Taking care of WordPress malware removal is a full-time job in itself. And unless it can get an expert’s undivided attention, malware can very easily creep in. So, it’s best to leave the task to professional WordPress malware removal experts.

Final Words

Big Customer Network can help you maintain a malware-free site. Our WordPress malware removal experts will remove the malware and set up a monitoring program to help prevent future malware infections.

Our experienced malware removal experts can take care of any WordPress website, no matter the size or complexity. You get access to dedicated malware removal services, comprehensive cleanups, and constant support with monitoring

Don’t wait until your website becomes infected with malware. Contact us today if you need malware removal or are ready to be proactive and invest in a malware monitoring program.