by Ray Cook

Created on: March 17, 2009   Last Updated: April 06, 2009

Preventing spam on a WordPress blog is quite simple.

First you have to understand what spam is in relation to WordPress, how it can entered your WordPress blog and how to prevent it.

Spam in a blog is a rather different concept to spam email but it can be just as annoying. Spam in a WordPress blog is usually in the form of an embedded link to another website. The purpose of this embedding is for the spammer to build links to their own website, increase their search engine rating and draw traffic.

SPAM IN COMMENTS

The first method spam can enter a WordPress blog is simply through a blog post comment. If you open up your blog to allow comments from anyone, then that also opens up a vulnerability.

This is how it works: most comments require the commenter to complete a simple form with a name, an email address and a comment. The spammer can use both the email address and the comment to add a link. This is usually very obvious. But on a successful site where there are many comments posted these spam comments can go undetected.

But do not despair; help is at hand in the form of a plugin to WordPress called Akismet. It's a strange name (it stands for Automatic Kismet, apparently) but very effective. It will block and detect virtually all spam. These days Akismet comes bundled with WordPress and all you have to do is activate it in the WordPress admin area .

You will need a wordpress.com API KEY to activate Akismet. If you don't already have one, obtaining one from WordPress is simply a matter of following a link on the Akismet configuration page (within the plugin menu section) completing a simple form and then receiving your API key. You then place that key on your configuration page, update the page and Akismet is activated.

When Akismet believes a comment is spam it will prevent it being displayed on the site and place it in the WordPress spam management area as a pending comment for you to decide to accept or reject the post. This area is displayed right at the top of your Dashboard area.

Akismet also provides you with statistics which show you how successful it has been in blocking spam and correctly identifying it. The Akismet website states that 83% of all comments are spam. Such is life in the blogosphere.

If you are receiving a very large number of spam comments then there is an additional plugin that you can use which stops spam-bots dead in their tracks. This is the WordPress approved wp-reCaptcha plugin.

reCaptcha is an industry standard method of forcing a human

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