A hacked website can destroy traffic, rankings, and revenue almost overnight.

One site saw 12,000 spam pages indexed, a 73% ranking drop, and revenue plunge to near zero.

Here’s the 90-day recovery that restored everything: 🧵👇 **

1/ The crisis situation:

Day 0 discovery:

What happened:

• WordPress site compromised
• 12,000 spam pages created automatically
• Japanese gambling spam injected
• Rankings dropped 73% over 2 weeks
• Google Safe Browsing warning displayed
• Traffic: 55K sessions/month → 15K

Revenue impact: $180K/month → $48K/month

Client called in panic mode. **

2/ Day 1-3: Stop the bleeding:

Immediate actions:

Hour 1: Take site offline temporarily

• Prevent further damage
• Stop spam page creation
• Assess scope

Hour 2-4: Identify entry point

• Found outdated plugin (not updated 2 years)
• Malicious code injected through vulnerability

Hour 5-8: Clean infected files

• Removed malicious code
• Deleted spam pages (all 12,000)
• Restored from clean backup (partial)

Day 2-3: Security hardening

• Updated all plugins/themes
• Changed all passwords
• Installed security plugin (Wordfence)
• Set up monitoring

Site back online: 72 hours after discovery. **

3/ Week 1: Google communication:

Clearing blacklist:

Day 4: Request malware review

• Submitted reconsideration in GSC
• Documented all cleanup actions
• Listed security measures implemented

Day 5-7: Monitor status

• Google reviewed within 48 hours
• Malware warning removed
• Safe Browsing cleared

But rankings still down 73%. Traffic still at 15K.

Real recovery work begins now. **

4/ Week 2-3: Spam URL cleanup:

Deindexing bad pages:

Challenge: 12,000 spam URLs still in Google index

Solution sequence:

• Created list of all spam URLs
• Returned 410 Gone status (not 404)
• Submitted removal requests in GSC (bulk)
• Created updated sitemap (clean URLs only)
• Disavowed spam domains linking to spam pages

Progress: 8,400 spam pages removed from index by week 3. **

5/ Week 4-5: Content restoration:

Fixing legitimate pages:

Issues found:

• 80 legitimate pages affected by hack
• Spam text injected into footers
• Hidden links added to content
• Meta descriptions corrupted

Cleanup process:

• Manually reviewed all 80 pages
• Removed injected spam
• Restored original content
• Verified clean code

Quality check: Each page manually inspected. **

6/ Week 6-7: Link profile analysis:

Addressing damage:

New toxic backlinks from hack:

• 240 spam links acquired during hack period
• Links to spam pages created
• Links from malware networks

Actions:

• Exported all backlinks
• Identified hack-related links (240)
• Created disavow file
• Submitted to GSC

Protecting authority from spam link association. **

7/ Week 8-9: Content enhancement:

Rebuilding trust signals:

Enhanced top 30 pages:

• Added 300-500 words per page
• Updated statistics and examples
• Improved formatting
• Added FAQ sections with schema
• Strengthened E-E-A-T signals

Showing Google: Site is active, maintained, legitimate. **

8/ Week 10-11: Technical optimization:

Performance improvements:

Site speed: 4.2 seconds → 1.8 seconds

• Image optimization
• Caching configured
• CDN implemented

Core Web Vitals: All passing Mobile: Fully responsive Security: SSL, HTTPS enforced

Technical excellence signals site health. **

9/ Week 12-13: Recovery acceleration:

Results emerging:

Traffic progression:

• Week 8: 18K sessions (20% recovery)
• Week 10: 26K sessions (47% recovery)
• Week 12: 38K sessions (69% recovery)
• Week 13: 44K sessions (80% recovery)

Rankings improving:

• Top keywords returning to page 1
• Long-tail rankings recovering faster
• Brand searches fully recovered

Not 100% yet, but trajectory positive. **

10/ Month 4 (Final recovery phase):

Reaching pre-hack levels:

Actions:

• Published 12 new articles (show activity)
• Acquired 8 quality backlinks (rebuild authority)
• Continued content updates
• Maintained technical excellence

Results by Day 90:

• Traffic: 52K sessions (95% of baseline)
• Rankings: 90% of keywords recovered
• Revenue: $165K/month (92% of baseline)

Full recovery: Achieved by Month 4 (120 days total). **

11/ Prevention measures implemented:

Never again:

Security protocols:

• Weekly automated backups (stored offsite)
• Plugin/theme auto-updates enabled
• Security monitoring active (Wordfence)
• Access limited (removed unused accounts)
• Strong passwords enforced (password manager)

Monitoring:

• Daily uptime checks
• Weekly security scans
• Monthly access reviews

Cost: $100/month in security tools Value: Prevented recurrence. **

12/ Crisis recovery worked because:

✓ Fast response (site offline within hours) ✓ Thorough cleanup (all malicious code removed) ✓ Google communication (proactive reconsideration) ✓ Spam URL removal (bulk 410 status) ✓ Content restoration (80 pages fixed) ✓ Link profile cleaning (240 toxic links disavowed) ✓ Content enhancement (trust signals rebuilt) ✓ Technical optimization (performance improved) ✓ Prevention implemented (security hardened)

Timeline: 90 days to 95% recovery Investment: 120 hours crisis work + $3K in security/cleanup Result: Revenue restored from $48K to $165K/month

Hacks are recoverable with systematic approach.

Speed of action determines recovery speed. **

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