How to Stop WordPress Spam
Stop WordPress spam comments
Published on: (Updated on: )
There are many ways to stop WordPress spam comments, but most include the use of plugins. In this post, you will learn how to stop WordPress spam comments without using a plugin.
The Problem with using plugins to stop WordPress spam comments
One notable problem with plugins is that they could slow down your site. Other than that, a very popular method plugins use is to reject comments from blacklisted IP addresses.
The adverse effect of blacklisting IP addresses is that a legitimate comment (not spam) might occasionally come from some of the blacklisted IP addresses. This is because some Internet Service Providers recycle IP addresses which means an IP address that has been blacklisted by a plugin for posting a spam comment might later be allocated to a legitimate user. This is why it is good to know how to stop WordPress spam comments without using a plugin.
To easily stop WordPress spam comments, you can use a built-in spam prevention method that comes with WordPress.
Follow the steps below to stop Wordpress spam comments without using a plugin:
Under your WordPress dashboard menu, click on settings:
1. Click on 'Discussion'.
2. Scroll down to 'Disallowed Comment Keys'.
3. In the box under the 'Disallowed Comment Keys', type a list of common words that you often see in spam comments. It is also not unusual for spam comments to appear in a different language from the language of your WordPress site or blog.
For instance, if you have an English blog, you might often see spam comments in foreign characters. To stop this, just include some frequently used words from the foreign language in your wordlist.
4. When you are done with the list, click the 'Save Changes' button. The above process can effectively stop WordPress spam comments without using a plugin. Thereafter, most if not all, of the spam comments on your WordPress site will now end up in the trash.
You could also go through your WordPress trash occasionally to ensure that you are not accidentally missing out on any user comment. But you would most likely discover that the comments including the disallowed words are really spam.
