Protecting your WordPress from spam comments can be done in several ways. Because every technique or method is never 100% foolproof, it is a good idea to combine several techniques in order to prevent a maximum of spam on your blog. An overview of techniques I have used in recent months can be found below. It is always possible to disable commenting on your blog posts, until you would like to enter into a discussion with your audience and therefore wish to leave the option to comment. I will briefly explain the strengths of the anti-spam plug-ins below. My personal top 5 best spam WordPress plugins:
5. Akismet
Let me start with the most well-known plug-in to stop malicious reactions. Akismet is a WordPress plugin that is installed by default when you choose WordPress. After enabling the plugin and requesting the (free) API key, Akismet works in the background and checks all comments posted on your weblog with the database they maintain. Fast, free and works quite well. Below is an image of the number of spam messages that this plugin managed to block. Plugin: Akismet Price: Free, download here
4. Growmap
Growmap is a plugin that is very strong in blocking automatically generated spam messages, such as comments about Louis Vuilton handbags orviagra pills. I noticed that the plugin actually managed to block all comments of this type; But the plugin had trouble with spam that was filled in via real people. For example, there are groups of people in India who have made it a profession to place as many links as possible on different blogs and websites. Their reactions are hardly stopped. Plugin: Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin Price: Free, download here
3. Antispam Bee
Similar to Akismet is Antispam Bee. This plug-in will also check the user’s IP addresses with a known spammer database. From my personal experience, Antispam Bee is fairly effective, but I don’t see any immediate advantage to this plug-in over Akismet, given that it is equally effective. However, if you still want to experiment with something new, I can recommend Antispam Bee. It also takes into account spam trackbacks, and you get a handy overview of the blocked spam messages on your WordPress dashboard. Plugin: Antispam Bee Price: Free, download here
2. Cookies for Comments
One of my favorite plugins. Cookies for Comments will place a small cookie on the user’s computer on a page where it is possible to comment. A spambot does not load this cookie and when the spambot tries to respond, it first checks whether this cookie exists. It also looks at how long it takes for the user to respond (how long does it take to write your name, email, website and a response?). If this is way too short, let’s say 3 seconds, the plugin will know that and will mark that comment as spam. Plug-in: Cookies for Comments Price: free, download here
1. Anti-spam
Finally, I will discuss Anti-spam. The name says it all, and the author actually promises that your WordPress is completely spam-free. Specifically, it is promised: blocking all automatic spam comments, makes almost no use of the database (good for shared hosting) and no false positives (comments that are blocked but later turn out to be legitimate). These are of course huge promises, but they are being kept. Plugin: Anti-spam Price: free, download here
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