Webinar Date: July 22, 2026 at 11:00 AM PT
Speaker: Kathy Zant, CEO, Zantastic LLC
Sooner or later, every developer or agency gets the call: “I think my site’s been hacked.” What happens in the next few hours often determines whether the site comes back clean or whether you spend the next three weeks playing whack-a-mole with malware that keeps reappearing. This session walks through a proven, repeatable process for recovering compromised WordPress sites, drawn from real-world cleanups. We’ll cover how to confirm a site has actually been hacked (and rule out the surprisingly common false alarms), why your first move should always be a forensic backup, and where malware tends to hide in a WordPress install. From there, we’ll work through the process to remove malware and harden the site so attackers don’t simply walk back in through the same door. Because the technical cleanup is only half the job, we’ll also tackle the parts that often get neglected: recovering search engine traffic after Google has flagged the site, and communicating with clients, stakeholders, and end users during a breach. You’ll learn what to say, when to say it, and how to maintain trust through a stressful situation. If you build or maintain WordPress sites for other people, you’ll leave with a checklist you can actually use the next time the call comes in.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to tell if a site really is hacked (often, people think it is when it’s just another issue)
- The first thing you should do before removing malware
- How to effectively clean malware from WordPress so you’re not playing whack-a-mole
- Common and unexpected places to find malware
- How to secure the site going forward
- Recovering polluted search engine traffic
- Effective communication with stakeholders
