abletec

Hello, Chris, & welcome. Truthfully, in order to do what you wish to do, ie, have your permalink contain the word ‘blog’, you’ll need to have 2 separate WordPress installations, the 1 in your root folder & another in a subfolder under it called ‘blog’. You can easily export your current posts & then import them into the /blog installation, so you won’t lose any content. Then you can just not have a posts page on the root site, replacing it instead w/a link in your menu to your blog.

The page name is not reflected in the permalinks structure. On my site, for example, my posts page is entitled “Vision Quest”, but the post urls will never contain that name.

Hello, hyrum0, & welcome. When a site is hacked, you are no longer in full control of it. That may seem obvious, but it needs to be said in light of the following.

In order to fix a compromised site, there are 2 objectives which need to be met. The first, &, to the site owner, the most obvious, is to repair the visible damage, which in your case was the defacement. The 2nd, which is actually more important, is to take away the control over the site that the bad actors now exert. You can eliminate bad files, but if the criminals still have control, ie, stolen passwords, etc, then simply eliminating bad code is not effective.

The first thing you need to do is to notify your host. They may or may not help you, but, if this is a server-wide as opposed to a site hack, they’re really the only ones who can fix it.

Next, ensure that whatever device you use to log into your website with is clean. If you have a keylogger or similar program on your device that sends your website’s credentials to the criminals’ command & control center, then no matter how good your credentials are, they’re compromised. So scan your device w/a reputable “virus” scanner, & preferably more than 1, as 1 might pick up something another doesn’t.

Thirdly, make sure the network you’re using is clean. Don’t log into your website via an unsecured wireless network or public hotspot, as it’s possible your website’s credentials can be intercepted. If you upload files, use a secure method of file transfer such as secure FTP. If you haven’t changed the default password on your router, please do so now.

Once you’re certain that your device & network are clean, change every password. That includes the one to your hosting provider’s control panel, your WordPress dashboard, & your WordPress database. Don’t forget to modify your wp-config.php file to reflect the change in password to your database. Make the passwords bulletproof. They should contain upper & lowercase letters, numbers, & punctuation signs. They should also not contain dictionary words.

It’s also a good idea to change the ‘salts’ in the wp-config.php file by going to:
https://api.ww.wp.xz.cn/secret-key/1.1/salt/
Delete the ones that are currently in your wp-config.php & replace them w/the new 1’s that are generated for you. This will log all users out, including the bad actors, &, w/the change in passwords, should keep them out if the hack was caused by stolen/guessed passwords.

Next, you should back up your site. If you don’t wish to back up the entire site, then at a minimum, back up your database, your user-generated files, ie, pics, documents, etc, & any purchased 3rd-party software like plugins or themes. You should also back up your wp-config.php & .htaccess files. Those should be examined to ensure that no bad code resides there. Feel free to paste these to any reply to this post, but *be ABSOLUTELY!! sure* to delete database credentials before doing so. You may also wish to use a plugin to export your content, such as posts, pages, & other custom post types on your site. That’s particularly applicable if there is no hacked content such as spammy links in your posts/pages. I often then import the content into the reinstalled site (see below) in order to use a brand new database & eliminate the possibility of using 1 that has been compromised.

Before reinstalling the site, check your user files & any 3rd-party software for bad code. Sometimes bad code can be inserted into your user files, including images, so check these carefully. If you can redownload software you’ve purchased, use that instead of the files currently on your site.

It’s a lot of work, but that should give you back full control & keep repeat hacks from occurring.

Feel free to reply should you require further assistance.

Well, 1 thing you could do is export any content using the wp-importer plugin. That way at least you won’t have to recreate all your content all over again, cuz that’s a royal pain.

Thanks for asking, cvmakato. Use your Godaddy file manager. Make sure the option to view hidden files is enabled. It will be in your web root folder, probably called public_html.

Hello, thislittlepiggystayedhome. Use the ‘Recent Posts’ widget. You can put it in whichever sidebar you wish (assuming your theme supports it).

Please let us know if that helps you.

It appears that your WordPress install is currently located in a folder called wp. That folder, in turn, is in your root folder. I don’t know precisely what that’s called for a variety of reasons, the most notable of which is that hosting providers don’t have standards for those things. It could be public_html, htdocs, or any of a thousand other names. What I am saying is that it is possible to move the WordPress installation from the wp folder into the folder above it, ie, the web root folder. You will need to do a search_&-replace on the database & change the urls accordingly if you do that.

Yeah, clearly something is amiss. Sorry for stating the incredibly obvious. W/o error messages to provide guidance, it’s hard to know precisely what that is. It can be anything from a plugin/theme conflict to a hosting issue or a combination thereof.

After looking at this thread from the top, it appears this may have occurred following an update? If so, then 1 thing we might try is to reinstall WordPress. I usually do this using an FTP client like FileZilla, because trying to do it w/the hosting provider’s file manager can be pretty challenging.

I instructed you in a previous post how to possibly obtain some error messages. Please consider following those to see if additional information can be provided & post anything you get to your next reply.

You may also be reaching a point now where the technical help you require is beyond these forums ability to provide, ie, it necessitates someone logging into your site &/or control panel to figure out what might be occurring. You may wish to post a job to http://jobs.wordpress.net under either the ‘General’ or ‘Performance’ categories if that is the case.

But let’s try reinstalling WordPress from scratch & also geting some error messages that may inform our next steps prior to taking that last action.

I’m really sorry this is happening to you. To rule out a possible hosting issue, I would also be happy to provide a staging area on my server where we can test the site’s functionality. Clearly if it works there & not on yours, then you’re dealing w/a hosting issue. I’ve offered this to folks before, &, indeed, sometimes it has in fact been a problem w/the hosting.

As I think you’re beginning to see, there’s a lot of parts that all need to function together to make a WordPress site work. When they do–& that is more often the case than not–they do so very well. When things break, trying to find out why can be a real challenge.

I will be celebrating Easter w/my family later today, but I’ll respond as connectedness permits.

It’s ok. You won’t learn if you don’t ask, & the only stupid question is the 1 you didn’t ask but wanted to.

Just activate the Authentic theme (not the child) from your dashboard & try to customize it. If that works, then we know the child theme is at fault. If not, then please try switching temporarily to a default WordPress theme & repeat.

There are *a lot* of things that can cause these sorts of problems–anything from a conflict between a WordPress theme or plugin to a hosting issue. The first step in the process is to narrow down the cause. Once we’ve done that, fixing things becomes a whole lot easier. I hope my thought process makes sense here. It’s very much like a doctor arriving at a diagnosis in order to be able to render treatment.

You write really well, BTW.