Can The Spam Once And For All!

WordPress is an amazing content delivery platform that offers a multitude of options and features that can accommodate the needs of most content creators. WordPress is presently in use by millions around the world, unfortunately with popularity comes a painful side effect, SPAM. If you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years or just don’t know, SPAM is the unwanted garbage link filled comments that are the scourge of the Internet that is becoming more and more troublesome to combat. Ask anyone who has a blog that allows comments and they will more than likely tell you that they absolutely despise SPAM and have been fighting an increasingly difficult battle against it, so here are 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog.

Step 1 is already there, you just need to enable it.

WordPress comes standard with a very handy plugin called Akismet already installed, all you need to do is enable it and set it up. The process is very simple and will only take you a few minutes, here are the first steps you need to take on your way to completing these 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog.

1. Log in to your WordPress admin area and click on your plugins tab, in the list of plugins you will see Akismet. Simply click on Activate to enable it.
2. Once you activate it you are not done, you will see that it needs an API key from WordPress.com but guess what, the plugin gives you a link to where you need to go to get it, couldn’t be easier.

Once you have installed, activated and entered your WordPress API key Akismet will silently and diligently guard your comments from unwanted SPAM. It’s not perfect so some may still slip by so make sure you still monitor your comments. You are now officially done with the first of 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog.

Step 2 is already there too, you just need to set it up.

WordPress has another built in means to battle comment spam, its called the Comment Moderation or Comment Blacklist setting. It’s just simply a text box located in your admin/settings/discussion area that you can input words that will trigger the system to either block or queue for moderation any comment that contains those words, you can set this up manually based upon words you see often times in your SPAM comments or you can use a list of common comment spam words available here. Congrats, you have just completed step 2 of 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog.

Step 3 is the most effective but also the most work.

In the never ending pursuit to get rid of SPAM, an excellent plugin was created that is called Bad Behavior that actually monitors the incoming traffic to your site and not only stops spam bots from even getting in, it also stops email harvesters, site scrapers and slews of other people/systems that you don’t want on your site. It’s a very robust plugin but it’s not fool proof, there are the rare times when it may block a real visitor and show them a nice screen telling them why they have been blocked and giving them a link to click to find out how to fix their problem. This may be bothersome for the few individuals it happens to but if you have a desire to protect your site from various forms of bad behavior this is the one to use. It is also compatible with WP Super Cache as well so you don’t have to choose between being protected or being fast, you can now have both.

Setting up Bad Behavior is as easy as installing any other plugin. I recommend searching for it in your admin/plugins section by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page called Plugin Browser/Installer and following the simple instructions.

bad behavior can also optionally work with a program called Honey Pot that provides a constantly updated list of information that will make Bad Behavior even more effective at blocking based upon additional criteria over what Bad Behavior supports by default. In order to utilize this added functionality you do need to get a key to enable it, the link you need to get the key is available on the plugins settings page, very quick and easy to obtain. That’s it, you have just completed step 3 of 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog.

While there is no perfect way to prevent all spam, utilizing the 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog as listed here will give you a very good means to battle the vast majority that’s out there today. If you have any additional information you would like to add or want to elaborate on any of the 3 easy steps to a spam free WordPress blog that I have outlined here, please feel free to do so.