5 Simple But Effective Ways to Quash Spam Comments on Your WordPress Site

I’m about to pull out my hair (what’s left of it). As of late, I have received an onslaught of comment spam on my blog. While it wasn’t an issue for me in the past, the number of spam comments has seemed to increase alongside site visitors. The more people that come to the site, the more spam comments that come along with them.

Spam comments can cause issues for your blog. Not only can they give your readers a bad impression, but can contribute to people losing trust in your content. Once you start losing trust, you start losing visitors. Once you start losing visitors, you start losing your authority (domain authority, page rank, etc.). You know what happens from there.

I spent several weeks looking for that perfect system for getting rid of spam comments; I discovered that there wasn’t one. While there are many different methods that help, there is not one foolproof system you can use that does everything. As such, you have to use trial and error with your blog to determine which system (or combination of systems) works best for you.

Here are five methods that you can use to help cut down on comment spam. I am not an expert on this topic, but these are the methods that came up over and over in my search for the perfect system.

1. Disable comments.

This may not be the solution you are looking for, but disabling comments is your best option. Think about it carefully. Do you really need comments on your blog? If the answer is “yes,” then ask yourself why? Another thing to look at is how many comments you receive. Spam aside, are you receiving any comments at all? There is no sense to keep comments enabled if they don’t benefit your site.

2. Disable certain fields.

Spammers are simply looking for a backlink. If you take this avenue away, the incentive for them to spam comments goes away. Remove the URL field so they are only allowed to enter their name and the comment itself. You will see a reduction in spam comments almost immediately. This is a method adopted by many WordPress plugins that I talk about later in this article.

3. Moderate your comments.

Don’t give spammers the keys to the castle. You should NEVER allow comments to post automatically. By moderating your comments, you will be able to approve what you want and delete the rest. If you allow comments to automatically post, you will have to play CAPTCHA. Also, spam comments will be live on your site, allowing visitors to read them before you get a chance to delete them.

4. Change your comment plugin.

Changing your comment plugin is also a viable option. Do not use the default comment form as people know how to get around it; even bots are able to locate your site and leave a comment without any human interaction whatsoever. Akismet is the standard plugin used with WordPress, but there are better options out there.

There are numerous plugins available such as Disqus and Facebook Comments. They provide extra protection for you such as advanced CAPTCHA settings and automatic filters. These help cut down on the amount of spam comments you need to moderate.

5. Block spammers by their IP address.

While not the most effective method, you will feel good blocking spammers. I, for one, do it on a regular basis. If you use CAPTCHA (which you should), then all comments will show the IP address of the person leaving the comment. There are numerous plugins you can use with WordPress that will block IP addresses. You simply enter the IP address you want blocked and you will never have to deal with comments from that IP address again.

Some issues you will face is the possibility of blocking a good IP address (such as a public library with multiple users). You may also be wasting your time as the commenter could be using a proxy server. As such, you will only be shutting down one road for the spammer and they will simply take another path with a different IP address.

Summing It Up

Comment spam sucks. Sometimes you spend more time deleting and blocking than you do responding to quality comments. First, determine if you really need comments at all. If you decide that you do, then take simple actions to help reduce the amount of spam you have to deal with on a daily basis.