How to Check if Your Website Has Been Hacked — Free Tools and Complete Guide

Your website is working fine. Traffic looks normal. Nothing obviously wrong. But silently, in the background, a hacker may have already compromised your website — injecting spam links into your pages, redirecting your visitors to malicious sites, stealing customer data, or using your server to send thousands of spam emails.

This is not a rare scenario. Over 30,000 websites are hacked every single day globally. WordPress alone — powering over 43% of all websites — is targeted by automated bots constantly, scanning for outdated plugins, weak passwords, and unpatched vulnerabilities. Most Indian business owners find out their website was hacked only after Google has already blacklisted them, customers start complaining, or the hosting provider suspends their account.

At Noni Vision — a Website Development Company in Delhi, WordPress Development Company in Delhi, and IT Company in Delhi NCR — we have cleaned dozens of hacked websites for clients. This guide shows you exactly how to check whether your website has been compromised — using free tools — and what to do if it has.

Warning Signs Your Website May Have Been Hacked

Many hacks are designed to be invisible to the website owner — the damage happens to your visitors and your Google rankings, not to what you see when you log in. Here are the warning signs to watch for:

Visible Warning Signs

• Google shows a red warning — when someone searches your brand on Google and sees “This site may be hacked” or “Deceptive site ahead”
• Website defaced — your homepage has been replaced with a hacker’s message, political content, or random text
• Unexpected redirects — your visitors are being sent to pharma sites, gambling sites, or other malicious pages
• New admin users — you find admin accounts in your WordPress backend that you did not create
• Unknown server files — new PHP files or scripts on your server that were not there before
• Hosting account suspended — many hosts automatically suspend accounts when malware is detected

Invisible Warning Signs

• Sudden traffic drop — Google is penalising or deindexing your pages because of spam content injected by hackers
• Google Search Console warnings — security issues or manual actions listed in your Search Console account
• Emails bouncing — your domain has been blacklisted because hackers used your server to send spam
• Slow website speed — hackers may be using your server for cryptocurrency mining or sending bulk spam
• Unfamiliar outgoing links — hidden links to pharmaceutical, gambling, or adult sites injected into your page content

Free Tool 1 — Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the single most important free tool for detecting security issues — and every business website should have it set up whether or not they suspect a hack. Google actively crawls billions of websites and flags those with malware, spam content, and vulnerabilities.

How to Check for Security Issues

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and log in
2. In the left sidebar, find Security and Manual Actions
3. Click Security Issues — if Google has detected anything suspicious, it will be listed here with details
4. Click Manual Actions — if Google has manually penalised your site for spam, it appears here

If you see any security issues flagged here, treat it as confirmed. Take action immediately. Every website we build at Noni Vision — a WordPress Development Company in Delhi and Custom Website Development Company India — has Search Console configured before launch.

Free Tool 2 — Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report

Google maintains a database of websites flagged for malware and phishing. You can check whether your domain is on this list instantly — for free — without needing to log into anything.

How to Use It

5. Go to: transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search
6. Enter your full website URL — for example, https://yourwebsite.com
7. Click Search — Google will tell you whether it has detected any unsafe content

If your site is flagged here, Google is already showing warnings to users who try to visit your website. This directly damages your traffic, your reputation, and your Google rankings. Getting this resolved is urgent.

Free Tool 3 — Sucuri SiteCheck

Sucuri is one of the world’s leading website security companies. Their SiteCheck tool is the most comprehensive free malware scanner available for any website — not just WordPress.

What Sucuri SiteCheck Checks

• Malware injected into your website’s HTML, JavaScript, or PHP files
• Whether your domain is on any major blacklists — Google, McAfee, Norton, Yandex, and others
• Website security headers — whether your site has basic security protections configured
• Outdated software — whether your CMS version has known vulnerabilities
• Spam content injected into your pages — hidden links or text you never added

How to Use Sucuri SiteCheck

8. Go to: sitecheck.sucuri.net
9. Enter your website URL and click Scan Website
10. Wait 30 to 60 seconds for the scan to complete
11. Review the Malware, Blacklist, Injected Spam, and Outdated Software sections

Sucuri SiteCheck scans publicly visible pages. It is excellent for detecting client-side malware and blacklist status. However it does not scan your server files directly — so it may miss malware hidden deep in your server. For a complete scan, use Wordfence (below) alongside Sucuri.

Free Tool 4 — Wordfence Security Plugin (WordPress Only)

If your website is built on WordPress — which the vast majority of Indian business websites are — Wordfence is the most powerful free security and malware scanning tool available. Unlike external scanners that only see your public pages, Wordfence scans your actual server files and compares them against the known clean versions of WordPress core files and plugins.

What Wordfence Free Scans

• All WordPress core files — detecting any modifications from the official versions
• All plugin files — detecting changes or malicious additions to plugin code
• All theme files — checking for injected malware in PHP and JavaScript files
• Database content — scanning posts, pages, and comments for malicious code
• Known malware signatures — matching files against Wordfence’s malware database

How to Run a Wordfence Scan

12. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard
13. Go to Plugins, click Add New, search for Wordfence Security, install and activate it
14. In the left sidebar click Wordfence, then Scan
15. Click Start New Scan — takes 5 to 15 minutes depending on site size
16. Review results — any Critical or Warning items should be investigated immediately

Important: If Wordfence finds malware, do not delete files randomly. Some malware files are named to look like legitimate WordPress files. At Noni Vision — an IT Company in Delhi NCR and Website Development Company in Noida — our security team handles malware removal properly to ensure all traces are eliminated without breaking the website.

Free Tool 5 — VirusTotal

VirusTotal is a free online service that analyses URLs using over 70 different antivirus engines and website scanners simultaneously. It gives you a comprehensive second opinion by checking your domain against dozens of security databases at once.

How to Use VirusTotal

17. Go to: virustotal.com
18. Click the URL tab
19. Enter your website URL and press Enter
20. VirusTotal scans against 70+ security engines and shows results within seconds

If multiple security engines flag your site, that is a strong signal of compromise. Even if only one or two engines flag it, investigate further — any flag is worth taking seriously.

Free Tool 6 — MXToolbox Blacklist Check

MXToolbox checks whether your domain or IP address has been blacklisted by email security providers. If hackers used your server to send spam emails, your domain may be blacklisted — causing your legitimate business emails to bounce or land in spam folders.

How to Use MXToolbox

21. Go to: mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx
22. Enter your domain name or IP address
23. Click Blacklist Check
24. MXToolbox checks your domain against 100+ email blacklists

If your domain is on email blacklists, this explains why your emails are not being delivered. Delisting requires identifying and fixing the original hack, then submitting delisting requests to each blacklist provider. This process can take days to weeks.

Free Tool 7 — Google Search — The Manual Check

One of the fastest ways to detect spam injection is a simple Google search that most website owners never think to do.

Search for Hidden Spam on Your Website

Open Google and search: site:yourwebsite.com viagra or site:yourwebsite.com casino or site:yourwebsite.com pharmacy

If results appear showing pages on your website with pharma or gambling keywords that you never published — your website has been injected with hidden spam content. This is called a pharma hack and is one of the most common types of WordPress compromise.

Check Your Indexed Pages

Also search: site:yourwebsite.com and look at all pages Google has indexed. If you see pages in foreign languages, about unrelated topics, or with strange URLs that you did not create — your website has been hacked and spam pages have been created on your server.

The Complete Free Hack Check — Run All 7 in Order

My Website Has Been Hacked — What Do I Do Now?

If any check above confirms a compromise, act quickly. The longer malware sits on your website, the more damage it does to your Google rankings, customer trust, and server reputation.

Step 1 — Take Your Website Offline Temporarily

Put your website in maintenance mode or redirect all traffic to a holding page. This prevents visitors from being exposed to malware while you clean the infection.

Step 2 — Change All Passwords Immediately

Change your WordPress admin password, hosting control panel password, FTP password, and database password. Use strong, unique passwords of at least 16 characters with letters, numbers, and symbols for each.

Step 3 — Back Up Your Current State

Before making any changes, take a complete backup of your current infected website. This gives you a reference point and ensures you do not lose legitimate content while cleaning.

Step 4 — Identify and Remove the Malware

Use Wordfence’s malware removal feature or manually review the flagged files. For most Indian business owners, this step requires professional help — malware removal done incorrectly can break the website or leave traces that cause reinfection within days. At Noni Vision — a WordPress Development Company in Delhi and Website Development Company in Gurgaon — we provide emergency malware removal and identify the vulnerability that allowed the hack in the first place.

Step 5 — Update Everything

After cleaning, update WordPress core, all plugins, and your theme to the latest versions immediately. The vast majority of WordPress hacks happen through outdated plugins with known vulnerabilities. Delete any plugins you are not actively using.

Step 6 — Request Google Review

Once your website is clean, submit a malware review request through Google Search Console. Google will re-crawl your site and — if it confirms the malware is gone — remove the security warning. This typically takes 1 to 3 days.

Step 7 — Submit Blacklist Removal Requests

For each blacklist your domain was flagged on from MXToolbox, submit a delisting request once your site is clean. Each blacklist provider has their own process — some are automatic, others require a manual request form.

How to Prevent Your Website from Being Hacked

Prevention is significantly cheaper and less stressful than recovery. Here is what every Indian business website should have in place — most of it free:

For WordPress Websites

• Keep WordPress core updated — enable automatic minor updates and update major versions promptly
• Keep all plugins updated — this is the single most important preventative measure against hacking
• Delete plugins you do not use — an inactive plugin with a vulnerability is still a vulnerability
• Use strong, unique passwords — never use your business name, domain name, or simple dictionary words
• Install Wordfence Free — turns on a firewall and blocks brute-force login attempts automatically
• Change the WordPress login URL — the default /wp-admin is what automated bots target first
• Enable two-factor authentication — even if someone gets your password, they cannot log in without the second factor
• Take daily automated backups — store them off-server on Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3
• Use Cloudflare Free — adds protection against DDoS attacks and malicious bots at no cost

For All Websites

• Choose a hosting provider that takes security seriously — not the cheapest shared hosting available
• Ensure your SSL certificate is always valid and HTTPS is enforced on every page
• Set up Google Search Console and check it monthly for security warnings
• Run a Sucuri SiteCheck monthly — it takes 2 minutes and can catch issues early
• Never install pirated or nulled themes and plugins — they almost always contain malware

Why Indian Business Websites Are Targeted

Many Indian business owners think they are not a target because their website is small or local. This is a dangerous misconception. Automated bots do not discriminate — they scan every website on the internet regardless of size, country, or industry. Your small business website in Delhi is scanned by the same bots targeting multinational websites.

The most common motivations for hacking small business websites are using your server to send spam emails, injecting hidden links to pharmaceutical or gambling sites to improve those sites’ Google rankings, redirecting your visitors to malicious sites, or using your server for cryptocurrency mining. Your website is valuable to hackers as infrastructure — regardless of what your business does.

A well-maintained WordPress website from a quality WordPress Development Company in India — with updated plugins, a security plugin, proper hardening, and regular backups — is significantly harder to compromise. Automated bots will simply move on to easier targets.

Noni Vision’s Website Security Services

At Noni Vision — a Website Development Company in Delhi, WordPress Development Company in Delhi, Website Development Company in Noida, and IT Company in Delhi NCR — we offer complete website security and maintenance services:

• Monthly WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates
• Daily automated backups stored off-server with one-click restore
• Wordfence Premium configuration — real-time firewall rules and malware signatures
• Cloudflare setup — DDoS protection and CDN for faster load times
• Monthly security scan and report using Sucuri, Wordfence, and Google Search Console
• Emergency malware removal for websites that have already been compromised
• Google blacklist removal — requesting review after successful malware cleanup

A hacked website costs far more to fix — in time, money, and lost revenue — than a properly maintained website costs to protect. If you want to check whether your website has proper security in place, or need emergency help with a compromised site, contact us at nonivision.in/contact-us — our team responds within 2 hours.