The challenge
A medical publishing website with hundreds of existing articles and around 10 key pages had developed several serious problems. Visitors and administrators encountered suspicious redirects and phishing-related warnings. Unwanted content had appeared, and automated registrations were adding spam to the site. The client needed the site cleaned up and rebuilt without losing the existing editorial content.
Investigation and cleanup
I reviewed the WordPress installation and removed unwanted files and folders through FTP, removed unused or outdated plugins, and disabled public registration that was being abused. I also cleaned unwanted posts and spam comments from the database using WordPress tools and addressed suspicious files and front-end assets as part of the rebuild.
Rebuild and content preservation
- Rebuilt the website using a new WordPress theme.
- Preserved hundreds of existing medical and pharmaceutical publishing posts and around 10 pages.
- Removed unwanted content and spam-related database entries.
- Reviewed unused plugins and unoptimized JavaScript/CSS as part of the cleanup.
- Kept anti-spam protections in place and continued checking suspicious users, posts and comments.
Outcome
The website was moved to a cleaner, more maintainable WordPress setup while retaining its core publishing content. The PageSpeed score improvement recalled from the project was approximately 15 to 60.
What this demonstrates
Recovering a compromised or neglected WordPress website often involves more than changing the theme. Unwanted files, outdated plugins, spam content, registration settings and front-end performance all need to be reviewed while protecting valuable existing content.