How do I stop spam on Wordpress?
Here’s what you need to know about stopping spam on a Wordpress blog
This blog (being in its infancy) hasn’t officially launched yet! I was waiting until Monday so that I would have the weekend to get more posts on here, work out any bugs and get things the way I like them.
Sadly this isn’t to be! The spam bots of the internet started attacking my site on Friday when the blog was switched on. Cleverly I did anticipate this and put a few measures in place to stop it! Here’s how to stop spam on a Wordpress blog:
How to use Akismet for Wordpress
The default Wordpress installation comes with Akismet – I suggest you use it. It’s a clever plugin for Wordpress that will compare the comments of your blog again the Akismet index to ascertain if the comment is spam or not. To enable this plugin go to the Plugins page in Wordpress, then simply click Activate on Akismet. Sadly that isn’t it up and running, there’s one more step. You’ll need a API key in order for the plugin to check back with its database. Go to: Akismet WordPress.com API key you’ll need to register but once you do you will be e-mailed the plugin API key. Now go back into Wordpress and go to Plugins > Akismet Configuration and enter the API key. That’s it! If a spam comment is left on one of your articles and is recognised as spam, it won’t show on your blog. Clever right? But that’s not the only precation I took…
Installing Bad Behavior for Wordpress
Bad Behavior is a plugin that will stop spam bots getting to your forms/comments as it stops the spam as it enters the site. You can download Bad Behavior from here: Download Bad Behavior
Install the same way you would any other wordpress plugin: Download the zip file, unzip locally on your computer, then using FTP software upload the directory to your Plugins directory on your web server. Once you have done this the plugin will appear in your plugins page in Wordpress. From there simply activate the plugin and start benefitting from that extra protection! You can always edit the settings of Bad Behavior by going to Tools > Bad Behavior in Wordpress.
Additional wordpress security
As with any username/password interface, here are a few extra tips to strengthening your Wordpress Security. Limit the number of login attempts available to hackers trying to get into your blog. This can be done through another plugin called Limit Login Attempts. This will make Brute Force attacks on your Wordpress Blog much harder. (Brute Force refers to hackers running a program to attempt each letter/number combination possible).
There are many other ways to protect your blog and to stop spam on Wordpress, I will likely post about these methods separately as they can be detailed to set up. For now these tips should keep the spam at bay.
Also, if you were wondering I’ve had 14 Spam comments since Friday night, and 104 bad spiders/bots blocked by Bad Behavior. But so far no spam on the blog, I am currently winning the war! But it is only day 3…
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!