Restore and Secure a Small-Town Government WordPress Website (Homepage and Admin Broken)

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Project Description: We are a small-town government office needing help restoring and securing our public-facing WordPress website. The original site designer has passed away, and we recently noticed that the homepage suddenly changed to display a zoning ordinance page. Additionally, we can no longer access the WordPress admin area (wp-admin or wp-login.php return errors or do not load). We scanned the site using Sucuri, and it reported no malware. However, the site is clearly not functioning as it should. This project is important but not overly complex—we just need someone trustworthy and experienced. What We Know: Website is built with WordPress and hosted on cPanel wp-admin is no longer accessible Homepage unexpectedly displays zoning ordinance content No sensitive user data is stored on the website Sucuri malware scan came back clean The site was working fine until recently We have cPanel access, but no access to the WordPress admin panel Backups may be available through the host, but we have not attempted any restore yet What We Need You to Do: Investigate why the homepage is incorrect Restore the homepage to its original content. Restore access to WordPress admin area (wp-login.php) Reinstall WordPress core files if necessary (without wiping content) Check for misplaced files like index.html that could be overriding WordPress Review and correct .htaccess if needed Update WordPress core, themes, and plugins Install and configure a basic WordPress security plugin (like Wordfence) Set up simple backups through cPanel or a plugin Leave a brief summary of what was found and fixed Requirements: Strong experience with WordPress recovery, security, and file-level repair Comfortable working in cPanel/File Manager/phpMyAdmin Fluent English communication and documentation Must be transparent and professional—this is a government site used by our community

Keyword: WordPress

WordPress WordPress Development Web Development PHP MySQL Web Design