Inherited site rescue
YOU INHERITED THE SITE. WE HAND YOU THE KEYS.
No admin login. Hosting on someone else's card. A developer who ghosted. We recover access, audit what is really running, and move the site to hosting you control. Fixed quote from $499, done in 2 to 5 business days.
Migration risk check
Question 1 of 3
What are you moving from?
The starting point sets what usually breaks and how careful the redirect map has to be.
The short answer
An inherited site rescue is a fixed scope engagement that recovers every credential (domain, DNS, hosting, WordPress admin, database), audits every plugin and integration, and moves the site to hosting you own. You end the week with a documented, hardened site and a login sheet, not a mystery.
Signs you inherited a mess
One or two of these is normal. Three or more is why owners call us.
You do not have the admin login
The last developer left, the agency folded, or the founder walked. There is a live site and no way in. Recovery through domain, hosting, or database is possible in almost every case.
The hosting bill goes to someone who left
The credit card on file belongs to a former employee or a closed agency account. Renewal is coming and nobody knows the password to the host.
The domain is registered under a name you cannot reach
WHOIS points at a private proxy or a person you cannot contact. We work with registrars to prove ownership and transfer the domain to your account.
You have logins but no idea what is installed
20 plugins, 3 abandoned themes, half the database is spam. You need an inventory and a safe cleanup before you can trust the site again.
The site is on a random cheap host with no backups
You inherited a $3 per month shared host with no snapshots, an out of date PHP version, and no security. One plugin update from a Sunday night outage.
What is included
Access recovery, in a documented order
We work backward from what you have: domain ownership, DNS control, host account, WordPress admin, then database. Every credential ends up in a password manager you own.
Full audit and inventory
Every plugin, theme, custom snippet, cron job, and integration listed with version, last update, and risk. You get a written report before we change anything.
Clean move to hosting you control
Same domain, faster host, honest pricing. Cloudways, Rocket.net, or Kinsta depending on traffic. Your credit card, your account, your keys.
Security reset
New admin users, revoked old sessions, rotated database and hosting passwords, fresh backups, malware scan. If anything looks off, we quarantine and fix before handover.
30 day watch
Rankings, uptime, forms, and error logs monitored for a month so surprises surface while we are still on call.
SEO safety, six locked steps
When a rescue includes a host move, every migration passes the same six checkpoints before it goes live.
Full URL map before we touch anything
We crawl the live site, export every indexed URL from Search Console, and match each to its destination on the new host.
Zero downtime cutover using DNS TTL prep
TTL dropped 48 hours ahead. Traffic drains from the old host as it lands on the new one. Visitors never see a broken page.
Canonicals, sitemaps, and robots re-checked
All verified on the new stack before DNS flips so Google sees a consistent signal from the first crawl.
Search Console and Bing warmed on the new host
Sitemaps resubmitted, top pages requested for indexing, coverage watched for 30 days.
Ranking baseline, then 30 day comparison
Top 100 keywords snapshotted the day before cutover, compared weekly for a month.
No ranking loss guarantee, in writing
If organic traffic falls more than 10 percent inside 30 days from causes we control, we roll back or refund.
How we run it
- 1
Discovery call, 15 minutes
Tell us what you have and what you do not. We map access gaps and quote a fixed price on the same call when possible.
- 2
Access recovery sprint
Domain, DNS, host, admin, database. Each credential recovered, documented, and stored where you can reach it.
- 3
Audit and inventory
Written report of every plugin, theme, integration, and hosting quirk, with risks flagged.
- 4
Clean rebuild of hosting and security
New host you control, hardened WordPress, fresh backups, malware scan, updated PHP and MySQL.
- 5
Handover pack
Login sheet, hosting details, backup instructions, and a short video walkthrough so any future team can pick up cleanly.
Written by Ali Yasin Jatoi
Founder of WebCare Studios. Ali has worked with WordPress for more than 10 years, including managing a Pearl Lemon internal fleet of 150+ sites with WP-CLI automation for updates, security cleanup, and malware removal. He has hands on experience across major hosts including Cloudways, A2 Hosting, Hostinger, and Bluehost.
Why owners pick WebCare
4 hour emergency response
Site down, hacked, or broken checkout gets a senior engineer within 4 hours. No ticket queues, no bots.
You only pay when it is fixed
Flat quote up front. If we cannot get you back online, you do not pay. Risk sits with us, not you.
Data safe approach
We work on a snapshot first and never touch your live database until the fix is verified safe.
150+ WordPress sites at Pearl Lemon (founder)
Our founder managed 150+ Pearl Lemon internal WordPress sites. The errors you are seeing are ones we have closed hundreds of times.
Common questions
The old developer is unreachable. Can you still recover access?+
Usually yes. If you own the domain or the hosting account we can rebuild admin access from either side. When both are locked, we work with the registrar and host support to prove ownership using company records, invoices, and email history.
Do I have to change hosts?+
No. If the current host is fine we harden the existing setup. We recommend a move when the host is unreliable, overpriced, or tied to an account you cannot control.
Will my Google rankings survive the cleanup?+
Yes. Nothing about your URLs, content, or canonicals changes. If we move hosts we run the same 6 step SEO safety checklist we use on every migration, with a written no ranking loss guarantee.
How long does an inherited site rescue take?+
Most rescues are done in 2 to 5 business days. Complex cases with domain transfers or offline hosts can take 7 to 10 business days because registrar and host support drives the timeline.
What does it cost?+
Standard inherited site rescue is $499. Cases with domain transfer disputes, hacked sites, or WooCommerce with live orders start at $999. Fixed quote, no hourly billing.
What do I get at the end?+
A clean site on hosting you own, a password manager entry per credential, a written audit report, and a short handover video. Everything a new team would need to run the site tomorrow.
Tell us what access you have. We take it from there.
Four fields. We reply with a rescue plan, a fixed quote, and the first credential we can recover for you today.