How to Stop WordPress Spam
If you aren’t using plugins to protect your WordPress blog from spam, you must very frustrated with blog spam right now. While doing a little blog maintenance recently I was reminded that automated blog spamming makes it possible for spammers to constantly attack.
In order to update one of my spam stopping plugins, I deactivated it. Of course, right at that moment my son needed a ride so I left my desk for about 20 minutes. In that short amount of time, four spam comments were posted and nearly another dozen spam comments and spam trackbacks were awaiting moderation. At that pace it would be impossible to maintain a blog without constant attention to all the spam.
How to keep a blog spam free
There are several anti-spam tools included with the standard WordPress installation. Some of the options are disabling comments or trackbacks all together, allowing comments by registered users only, moderating all comments, testing comments against a list of spam words, blacklisting some words, and limited the number of links allowed in a comment. Using some combination of these techniques will at least reduce spam. In most cases however, additional tools will be needed.
Luckily, WordPress and the WordPress community of users provide the perfect plugins to handle spam. SpamStopping.com’s favorites are
- Askismet- A service that tests comments and holds those that appear to be spam for the blog administrators final determination.
- Bad Behavior - Prevents access by spambots.
- Cryptograph - Prevents automated entries by presenting a CAPTCHA (a string of letters that spambots can’t recognize) that must be correctly identified before a comment can be posted.
Spam Karma is also frequently recommended by other bloggers. It’s another tool to stop automated spam.
We recommend starting with the installed options and possibly one plugin and adding additional options when spam starts getting through. Being over zealous against spam can make it more difficult for your visitors to comment.