PrestaShop Account Suspended? This is What You Should Do
Published on: June 1, 2020
Jinson Varghese
11 mins read
Are you a PrestaShop store owner? If yes, then any downtime to your store can potentially turn into financial loss. PrestaShop is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms and more than a quarter-million stores around the world use it. While more people are taking their businesses online with PrestaShop, there has been quite a good number of PrestaShop account suspensions too.
Just like offline stores, online stores too can only sell their products as long as they are operational or accessible by shoppers. Having your PrestaShop account suspended not only means downtime for your web store but can have a much more lasting impact.
Such as:
- First time visitors are less likely to return to your store
- A missing page or payment issues will deter your customers from making the purchase
- Prolonged downtime may cause customers to migrate to another store
- Permanent loss of customers can cause a decrease in revenue
- Bruised online visibility
- Steep fall in search engine ranking
- Or, not getting a place in the SERPs altogether, etc.
Further, your PrestaShop account suspended is also an opportunity for your competitors to attract your customers. In lieu of a suspended PrestaShop store, shoppers move to another site for their needs and may never return back.
Today, with this guide, we are going to drill down all the possible causes of a PrestaShop account suspension, its consequences, and a step-wise PrestaShop account suspension removal.
Why Has My Host Suspended My Website?
There can be multiple reasons for having your PrestaShop account suspended by your host. Few common reasons include:
1. Overusing Server Resources
Most of the free hosting servers have a usage limit of their services. Even in paid web hosting, there might be limits. If your website is using a large number of resources then your web hosting might detect it and suspend your website. In this case, the web hosting may choose to investigate further and only after the completion you can request for reactivation
2. Overusing Web Hosting CPU
If you use a paid web hosting then there might not be a limit on CPU usage. However, if your website or online store has any resource-hungry script or program that is using a lot of computing power then the webs hosting will detect it. Also, if it is affecting other users then you might get your PrestaShop account suspended. You need to audit your website and find any such scripts or programs and remove them to reactivate your account
3. Payment Failure
Non-payment of dues is a very common reason for account suspension. There can be various possibilities for why your payment didn’t go through. There may be some glitch in the auto-renewal process, the payment method is outdated, your card is declined, your card does not hold enough balance, and so on.
Usually, you receive a reminder from your hosting provider on the nearing renewal. Ideally, you also get notified if your card was declined or the renewal didn’t process. Fish through your email and learn which was your case.
In case you didn’t receive an email, get in touch with your host, and figure out what the matter was.
4. Hacked Website or Malware Found on Website
If attackers have hacked your website then search engines will blacklist your website. In this case, you might also have your PrestaShop account suspended by your web hosting service. Your host may suspend your PrestaShop store to prevent attackers from causing any more damage. Also, if you use a shared server, this helps in keeping other websites safe on the same server.
4. Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks are one of the most frequently used attack types. Hence, search engines look for them very ferociously on websites and e-stores.
Attackers often insert phishing pages into unsuspecting websites. If search engines find such activities during their regularly crawl, they send you a warning about possible harmful phishing pages on your site. However, they won’t hold back from blacklisting your PrestaShop store, if those phishing pages continued to exist.
Having your website blacklisted by top search engines can also be one of the reasons why your hosting provider will have your PrestaShop account suspended.
How to Resolve PrestaShop Account Suspended
If you get your PrestaShop account suspended, then you can follow the below steps to reactivate your account:
1. Pay your dues
Non-payment of dues is a very common reason for account suspension. If you have incomplete payments, go to the payment section and complete all pending dues. Once you have done it, contact the customer support team to restore your services
2. Limit hosting server usage
Your website might have a resource-hungry script causing all the issues. Check if you added new features such as new plugins, upgrades to the site, or any background task continuously running. These activities consume a lot of resources, however, your plan may not support such high usage. If required you can upgrade to a plan that expands the limits
3. Remove malware
Removing malware from a website can be a tricky and tedious task. First, you need to detect the malware. You can do this either through security audits or a malware scanner such as Astra’s.
The following picture shows malware detected on a website by the Astra Malware Scanner.
If you’re already an Astra customer, you may review the malicious file right there from your Astra dashboard. In case the file contains questionable links, code snippets, JS, etc. delete that file with the ‘Delete this file’ button, as shown in the picture.
Alternatively, you can use this free malware scanner to locate the hack and use this extensive malware removal guide for PrestaShop. If malware is present in your core files then you will have to replace them with clean backups or fresh versions.
PrestaShop Account Suspended By Different Hosts
1. Prestashop GoDaddy account suspended
GoDaddy is a very popular web hosting service provider and a lot of people have their websites on GoDaddy. A very common reason for getting your PrestaShop account suspended by Godaddy is due to non-payment of dues. However, there might be other reasons as well, as mentioned above.
Once you have your PrestaShop account suspended, customers will not be able to access your store. This will lead to a continuous loss of business and churning of current customers until you take action to reverse the suspension. This is what you should do:
- Take backups of your website and database
- Check the reason for the account suspension with your host.
- If malware is the reason, scan your website and find the hidden malware. Here’s a more holistic guide on PrestaShop hack removal that you can follow.
- Afterward, submit a review request with your host.
- Strengthen your security firewall to prevent further attacks.
2. Prestashop BlueHost account suspended
BlueHost is a very popular hosting service and follows a very strict security policy for hosting malicious content on websites/stores. The Bluehost malware scanner regularly scans websites for malware, infected pages, or other threatening elements, it will have your PrestaShop account suspended. You will get emails stating that the same and your website will render inaccessible for your customers.
In order to fix the issue, pin the problem first. To find the reason review the email or warning message sent by your host. If there hasn’t been such an event, take the lead and contact your service provider.
Once getting that clear, it’s easier to work on the solution. If your PrestaShop account suspended for malware, phishing, or spam, a complete malware removal would be the way to go. For other causes, like payment issues, excess server load, you can consider paying and reducing usage respectively.
Once you fix the issue, BlueHost will activate your account and your website will be up and running
3. Prestashop Hostgator account suspended
Hosting services such as HostGator have made it very easy for owners to launch and host websites. With such widespread use of these hosting providers, there is a need for stronger security protocols. Several websites are hosted by HostGator and it checks for any suspicious activity on any website.
If HostGator finds any malicious propaganda on your website or violating other security and service terms, it will have your PrestaShop account suspended. This is done to protect the other websites on its servers and prevent the spread of infection.
4. Prestashop Ionos account suspended
Ionos has been in the web hosting business for over thirty years and has a good track record of secure hosting and preventing cyber-attacks. If your website has been hacked or blacklisted by search engines then Ionos will have your PrestaShop account suspended to protect its servers and other websites
5. Prestashop A2 account suspended
A2 started in 2001 and has become a very popular web hosting service. They support all popular CMSs like PrestaShop and offer customized solutions. However, you may receive an email from A2 web hosting about the suspension of your account.
There might be several reasons for your PrestaShop account suspended by A2 web hosting, such as non-payment of bills, violation of its terms and conditions, hacked website, overuse of its server resources, to name a few. Once you receive such notice from A2, you need to take a backup of your website and identify the reason for the suspension.
6. Prestashop MyHost has suspended my website
With cheap plans for webs hosting MyHost is one of the most used hosting platforms. MyHost also has its own security testing tools and scanners. If your website has been hacked or compromised, MyHost will detect it and will have your PrestaShop account suspended. To reactivate your account, you need to detect and remove any malware that may be present on your website
7. Google phishing Warning for PrestaShop store
Google crawls through websites to find any suspicious activities or harmful content and then flags them out. You may get your PrestaShop account suspended if Google finds key loggers, phishing pages, malware, absence of proper SSL certificates, to name a few. This is done to protect users who might get infected if they visit such sites. After you fix your website you can request a review by Google.
Conclusion
Having your PrestaShop account suspended can cause a lot of financial loss along with a negative brand image. The least you can do after facing such an incident is to improve your PrestaShop store security.
I am listing down some of the most basic security tips you can apply to your store. If you wish to give even more peripheral security to your store this advanced PrestaShop security guide may help.
- Use strong passwords and change all default credentials. Preferably alphanumeric and phrasal passwords are much harder to crack and will keep attackers away from your account
- Use 2 Factor Authentication. This has become the gold standard of secure logins and prevents attackers from entering your account even with stolen credentials
- Have backups of your website. Having a backup of your website will help you in replacing infected websites completely and bringing it back online. Most of the hosting providers have options for regular automatic backups
- Use a strong firewall. Using a firewall will protect your website from any unwanted traffic and acts as the first line of defense. Astra has one of the best firewalls with complete all-round protection and continuous monitoring. This will protect your website from a multitude of attacks
Following basic security protocols and an effective website security service like Astra will prevent your website from getting suspended. Astra is one of the leading security services that provide a complete array of tools tailored for PrestaShop, and expertise in protecting your website. With your PrestaShop store’s security left to Astra security experts, you can have an undiverted focus on growing your business.
Jinson Varghese
