Why Contractor Websites Get Hacked (and What to Do About It)

Contractor websites get hacked because nobody is watching them. You built your business to run a crew, not to manage software. Your website probably has not been updated in months or years. Hackers know this, and they target it.

Why contractor websites are popular targets for hackers

Hackers do not pick targets by hand. They run automated tools that scan millions of websites looking for outdated software. Contractor sites sit near the top of that list.

Here is why. A contractor hires someone to build a site. The site goes live. The contractor gets back to running jobs. Nobody thinks about the website again until something goes wrong.

That gap is exactly what attackers are looking for.

In 2025, researchers found 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities. That is up 42% from the year before. About 91% of those vulnerabilities came from plugins, the add-on software that most contractor sites use for contact forms, galleries, and maps.

Roughly 13,000 WordPress sites are successfully hacked every single day.

A contractor running a busy crew has no time to track vulnerability announcements. The site becomes an easy mark.

What hackers actually do to a contractor website

Most attacks are not dramatic. You will not see a skull and crossbones on your homepage. The damage is quieter.

Hackers redirect your visitors. Someone searches for a roofer in your town, clicks your link, and lands on a pill-selling site or a scam page. That visitor is gone. They call your competitor instead.

Hackers use your site to send spam. Your domain gets flagged. Email from your business address starts going to junk folders. Customers stop hearing from you.

Hackers steal your contact form submissions. New job inquiries go straight to the attacker. You never see them.

Recovering from any of these costs real money. The average small business spends about $14,500 cleaning up after a hack.

What you can do to protect your site today

You have a few practical options right now.

First, update everything. Log into WordPress and update WordPress itself, your theme, and every plugin. Do this today and set a reminder to do it monthly.

Second, remove plugins you do not use. Every unused plugin is an unlocked door. If you installed a slider plugin three years ago and never used it, delete it.

Third, check who has access. Look at your WordPress user list. Remove any accounts you do not recognize or that belong to people who no longer work with you.

Fourth, install a security plugin. Something like Wordfence or Solid Security adds a layer of monitoring. It is not a complete answer, but it helps.

The longer-term answer

Updates protect you today. But next month there will be new vulnerabilities. And the month after that.

The maintenance burden is the actual problem. A contractor site needs to work, not to require ongoing IT attention. Most contractors did not sign up for that.

Basalt moves small business websites off WordPress to a platform with nothing to hack and nothing to update. The move is free.

If you are tired of worrying about this, that is an option worth looking at. Start with what it actually costs to maintain a WordPress site, or what your options are if your site has already been hacked.

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