Did you receive a sudden WordPress account suspension and can’t figure out why? We don’t blame you—there are several reasons WordPress.com could have blocked account access. However, they mostly come down to performing actions against the Terms and Conditions and User Guidelines. It could undoubtedly be a mistake on their end, as well. Regardless of what happened in your case, the results range from the inability to view your profile to also losing access to the administration of websites you created. Unsurprisingly, the faster you act after your WordPress account got suspended, the sooner you could fix the problem.
Note. We will focus on resolving the issue with a WordPress.com account. Other hosting providers have similar messages to “This account has been suspended,” and precise ones such as “The account was suspended for malware.” They may disable your hosting user account access and warn you before banning the WordPress backend access. Nonetheless, our tips below help in those cases, too.
What can’t a suspended WordPress account do?
Accounts WordPress.com suspended will be unable to do the following:
- Access any WordPress.com feature, functions, or third-party services that involve the account in any capacity
- Visit their website on the front-end (so will other visitors)
- Access their WordPress Admin section
- Connect to their website root using FTP
- Download or create backups of the website
It’s important to note that WordPress.com will not delete your website or account information. They’re aware that mistakes happen, and will block account access until you appeal the decision. If you do not act within a reasonable time frame or realize you broke the rules, the list of available options gets shorter.
1. Pay for WordPress hosting to fix a suspended account issue
The simplest explanation for why WordPress.com suspended your account involves unpaid dues. Though WordPress offers affordable monthly plans, users must pay upfront, in full, and then keep paying yearly. Therefore, it’s likely that the payment date is approaching or already did, and your payment method did not work. Whether you did not have enough funds, ran into a transaction error, forgot to set the payment up, or switched cards or payment service providers is up to you to discover. Once you sort that out, use method 5 to notify WordPress.com.
2. Check whether your account broke the WordPress.com rules and guidelines
Do you remember when you signed up for the WordPress.com account in question? At the time, you had to agree to WordPress.com Terms of Service and User Guidelines for WordPress.com accounts. Unfortunately, many users skim on those or skip reading them in a hurry to get their free or paid WordPress website hosting started. Thus, having their WordPress account disabled is an ideal time to comb through every sentence. That will let you realize whether your actions were against the rules and if fixing them is feasible. It may also suggest that WordPress.com made a mistake—undoubtedly something you should point out using method 5.
3. Block a website hacking attack on WordPress
While possible, we find it hard to believe that an owner who cares about their website would do the things below. Therefore, we suspect that your WordPress.com site got hacked, the culprit took control and is now breaking the rules in your name. Before we dig into some consequences of such an attack, we’ll remind you of a few ways your website can get hacked:
- Using simple or identical passwords across multiple websites, then suffering a brute force attack from bots
- Having your credentials involved in a data leak
- Using an outdated version of WordPress with a chink in the armor hackers exploited
- Using outdated, flawed, or malicious WordPress themes or plugins. That is also a problem with installing nulled plugins or themes
Use method 5 to reach out to WordPress.com, so they can either revert the damage or, at the very least, permit access to the back end. Consequently, you can find and fix backdoors and clean your website from malicious data.
1. Hackers may be phishing
Employing phishing tactics is one reason hackers use smaller websites. They may exchange or alter the sign-in screen or transform your home page, so it looks like a different website. That would trick users into logging in and, in both cases, send login credentials to the perpetrators. They can also collect saved billing information or credit card details or try to entice new inputs.
2. Hacker made your website spam
They may need your website as a way to launch an attack on other websites. Similarly, hackers may abuse spamming to leech off your link juice and send redirects to their websites. Whatever the case may be, you would lose access and site content, and they could permanently ruin your reputation and search results ranking.
3. Culprits posted illegal content
Perpetrators may also decide to treat your website as hosting for illegal content such as software, music, movies, nulled plugins and themes, and things we prefer not to imagine. Additionally, they may start selling illegal products or set up redirects to other infected websites with unlawful content.
4. Remove any plagiarized content to enable a suspended WordPress account
Since this can happen accidentally, through rogue writers and editors, or hackers, we decided to cover it separately. Plagiarism involves using content from other websites (design, text, images, videos, and so on) with or without giving them credit. Search engines can detect this and issue a warning. The rightful owner may file a DMCA takedown notice, and WordPress.com is obligated to respond.
5. Appeal WordPress.com Support for your account
Regardless of the reason WordPress suspended your account, you can contact WordPress.com Support to explain your situation and ask for a fix:
- Use a WordPress.com Support for Suspended Content and Sites contact form. Enter your name, e-mail address, and website URL, and provide as many details as possible under “Comment” before clicking Submit.
- Try logging in to WordPress.com and check if there’s a notification alongside the “account suspended” message. Click the URL and fill out the necessary details to get in touch.
- Check the email address registered with your WordPress.com account. That also includes registrations via Gmail or Apple ID. WordPress.com will send an explanation and leave a contact link you need to click.
- Contact paid Customer Support through the usual means.
Note. You can only contact WordPress.com regarding your website, ideally from the WordPress.com account listed as the owner. In emergencies, you can try using a different account and proving your identity in other ways.