WordPress is a CMS which currently sits as the most popular blogging platform in the world. About 1 in 6 of all websites are created using WordPress. It’s the best free CMS available. With extensions, plugins, and a vast knowledge base to help you this is the most comprehensive and customizable CMS in the world.

Sooner or later, you will encounter spammers who want to ruin your blog. Instead of sitting back and waiting for it to happen, launch a pre-emptive strike by installing anti-spam plugins. There are other things you can do too, and this is what we’ll focus on below.

Install Plugins

Plugins form the foundation of your spam defenses. Most of them are cheap, but there are free ones you can try. Aim to install them from the official WordPress directory. This way you can guarantee quality and ensure you haven’t just downloaded a virus. Try a number of spam blockers and see which one you prefer. Carry out research and make sure you choose the one which feels right for you.

Some plugins actively target spam bots, which is how most spammers target lots of websites in a short space of time. Unfortunately, these won’t stop human bloggers from spamming you. The only way to stop manual spammers is to target them personally, but thankfully they’re quite rare and can’t cause a lot of damage.

No-Follow Comments

Make your comments section a no-follow section. In the WordPress default settings, you might already have this option ticked. What no-follow means is search engines won’t index comments. It’s an extra piece of HTML code which tells the search engine’s bots to ignore anything in the comments section. It means adding links and spam serves no purpose because the search engines completely ignore them.

Tell your commenters it’s a no-follow section. Make it clear the tag is installed and the manual spammer will disappear. If you already have this selected, an anti-bot plugin will create an iron ring of spam defenses.

Remember any links in your blog’s comments won’t impact your own SEO either.

Do It Yourself

If you don’t want to install a plugin, you can moderate the comments yourself. The chances are you already read through every comment to see what people are saying anyway. Anytime you see a piece of spam you can delete it. It’s annoying to have to do this, but it doesn’t harm you.

The only disadvantage with anti-spam plugins is the fact it offers another barrier to entry for genuine commenters. Most Internet users are lazy and won’t always jump through hoops to gain the right to post.

Administration Phase

Many blogs automatically send comments to an administration section before they appear on the blog. You have to authorize each comment before it appears under your blog. It’s the nuclear option for all spam comments as it’s impossible for it to get through without you seeing it. It also won’t stop genuine commenters from writing to you.

You do need a lot of discipline for this to work. You have to sift through all the comments and decide which ones are worthy of posting. Definitely not a good idea for more popular blogs!

Social Media

Another common feature we’re starting to see is people having to sign in with their social media accounts to post a comment. It’s a piece of code which stops most spam bots. After all, how many spam bots have social media profiles?

This will make it more difficult for genuine commenters to make a comment. Not everyone has a social media account, believe it or not, and not everyone wants to link social media with their blog commenting. It’s another barrier and a lot of people simply won’t post on principle.

On the other hand, even manual spammers will struggle to post. They’re hardly going to post comments under their real names and tell you exactly who they are.

Google Works

Google is increasingly making it harder for spam to have a negative effect on Internet users. It continues to change its algorithms so the practice has less of an effect on SEO. It’s slowly making spam obsolete in this area. The only spam remaining will involve poorly written emails and an attempt to steal your credit card details. Spamming has been reduced to a virtual version of natural selection, and it’s all thanks to Google and its attempts at taking over the (online) world!

Korah Morrison, working for College-Paper.org – the best student’s helper, and love to write for great blogging sites like KeralPatel.com!