How To Eliminate Wordpress Blog Comment Spam
One of the most serious problems with any blogging system, including WordPress, is that the comments area is wide open to that scourge of the Internet, spammers. In this case, it’s comment spam.
Comment spam is created by people seeking to boost their Google rankings by having lots of links pointing to their own websites. This causes a wide variety of problems:
• When Google detects content spam, they will often block the site it’s coming from because it messes up their ranking system.
• It takes up your valuable time and bandwidth to eliminate these posts.
• If the onslaught of spam is heavy enough, it may result in a denial-of-service attack, intended or not, which is a situation in which the server tries so hard to post bad information and/or deliver notification emails to you that it denies service to the legitimate requests. In at least one case, a blogger received over two thousand email notifications of comments that needed approval; as he dealt with these, he continued getting more, ultimately crashing his mail server.
As you can see, even if you have your comments set to post only upon approval, this can be a serious problem. One solution is the Akismet plugin for WordPress.
Akismet Plugin and Other Plugin Options for WordPress
Akismet is designed to help you filter out those nasty spammers, and it’s not hard to get it installed into your WordPress system. Download the plugin, and upload it to the blog directory on your server in the plugins subdirectory under wp-content. Activate from the WordPress plugins menu. If you have a notice that you need the Akismet API, go to the WordPress website and look or ask for one.
Here’s the magic: the only instruction in Akismet is “forget that spam was ever a problem.” You don’t have to do anything else at all – the spam will simply be bounced. You will not receive a notification, nor will you have to go out and delete spam.
Another plugin for eliminating spam from bots is the “Did You Pass Math” plugin. This one makes the user perform a simple math problem before submitting a comment. As most humans can handle this and most spambots can’t, it’s pretty likely that a comment posted through this is a legitimate comment. You should add a note of caution that your comments will be deleted if you answer the math wrong, though; a wise commenter will use an offline composition tool, not post directly to the comments area.
If This Still Doesn’t Work
If you still can’t eliminate spammers with these plugins, you can eliminate them by denying them access to your comments area. This does not mean you have to disable your comments section, only that you need to set up a filter.
It’s not usually as simple as just blocking their IPs. Serious spammers use random IPs, while blocking IPs may get rid of them for a short time, it will ultimately prevent legitimate comments from being posted. Spammers are also notorious for hijacking other people’s IP addresses. But as a short-term emergency solution, you can try it. The IP address is included in the information packet for the comment; it’s similar to a traceable phone number. Look for clear patterns in your IP numbers.
Use the .htaccess file to block unwanted IPs from even seeing your blog. For instance, these lines can be added:
order allow,deny
deny from 123.123.123.123
deny from 456.456.456.*
deny from 789.789.*.*
allow from all
IPs are four-part numbers, such as 192.168.0.1. Typically, if you see a pattern with the first two sections being identical, you can block all IPs of that type by simply listing them as 192.168.*.*, as you see above. This screens out all these IP numbers. Blocked IPs will get a 403 error page; customize yours so that your contact details are listed in case you’re blocking out a legitimate user. Don’t use your regular email; a spammer can harvest that too, for a whole new set of problems. Instead, encode your email so that it’s not automatically readable.
When you think you have your problems addressed, you can remove the block from your .htaccess file. If it still doesn’t work, or if you don’t see an IP pattern, it’s likely that spambots are hijacking someone else’s machine to attack your site. In this case, do not use the IP block.
Again, if you don’t have an IP pattern of attack, this may not be worth doing. Remember, too, that with IP addresses, the first numbers affect the largest number of computers, like a reverse address: USA, California, Sacramento, X Building, Ste. 101, Joe Schmo. An IP follows roughly the same pattern, with the last of the four sections referring to the specific computer it is attached to.
Google’s Nofollow Attribute
Of course, if it’s a waste of their time to spam you, spammers may just skip you altogether. For this reason, you can use the Google Nofollow attribute for links: . This attribute is embedded automatically by modern versions of WordPress.
It does not eliminate links, which is what spammers are working on adding to your site. Instead, it makes those links irrelevant to Google. The end result is that it doesn’t hurt your rank in Google, and it doesn’t help a spammer to send data to your site. It also marks you, for spambots looking for an easy target, as a waste of time.
This is not an immediate fix. But it is a way to make your blog resistant to spammers in the future. If you’re already a target, you’ll have to work with it slowly, incorporating all these fixes. If you aren’t a target, the very least you should do is turn on the nofollow option in your WordPress system; this will deter any hungry spambots. Upgrade your version, or look for one of the plugins that provides this service for you.
W.Chris is a professional blogger, internet marketeer, gadget lover and Freelance programmer. He launched this site in 2008.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
yes… Finnaly I Find What I Need. I Really Hate Spam, All People Hate Spam. Thanks For Your Story Chris
February 25th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Good blog, useful as aresource
March 12th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Don’t you hate spam to?
March 18th, 2009 at 4:41 am
Thanks for sharing us,keep writing. I Have bookmarked your site.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
usefull information.. thanks a lot..
March 19th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
thanks,very greatful article.i agree with you.Personally ,i think the best way to make money
online is to write articles.Last month i earned 3,207$ by writing
articles to ehow .It IS VERY SIMPLE and easy .Follow this guide
http://www.ehow.com/how_4850041_money-online-ehow.html
Then you can also make 3,207$ per month.At last the point is to
TAKE ACTION!
March 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
This is really very good and relevant inforation. So thanks for sharing this. I have bookmarked as I would like to come back often.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
March 30th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I see one of the spammers got through here, two posts above mine. Nevertheless, I was looking for that mathematics plugin, couldn’t remember the name, but when I did a Google search your site came up high within the SERPs.
I’m downloading the “Did You Pass Math” plugin as I write this. Thanks!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Thanks Matt….
April 7th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
mm.. strange
April 15th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
This is quite a hot information. I’ll share it on Delicious.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
hmm.. love it..
April 28th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
How can you tell when someone is just commenting their opinion or trying to get links. What is the comment box for, if you block all peoples opinion?
April 29th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Your insights above on how to fight spammers in the comment area are good to learn. For me captcha is the best way to minimize spamming via robots.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Thank you for information. I didn’t know what to with he spammer. Thanks to your info I know how to block them now.
Thanks a lot!!!
May 4th, 2009 at 5:35 am
It’s very important inforamtion about seo most of people on the spider net are looking for.
thanks for the information
samah abdulkarim
May 7th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
online surveys are a great way to get paid and earn extra cash. Fill in a paid survey online and make money for giving your opinion.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I’ve been working from home for some time now and it really is possible to make a great income. In order to find something that is legitimate, you must first understand what you are looking for (e.g. work or business opportunity).
Most online work requires you to have some sort of specialized technical skill sets. You should never pay to start an online job. Any site that requires you to pay to work is definitely a scam. On the other hand, if you are not technically qualified for most online jobs, then your best bet is starting your own home based business. Starting a business does require up front cost.
The quickest way I know to make some extra cash is by selling stuff on ebay or searching craiglist for work- these are normally only short-term fixes. I’ve tried them both and lost interest very quickly.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
This couldn’t be more true…but ironic how some spam has managed to filter through. thanks for the look out though!
June 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Being new to the marketing “world” I cannot believe the information I have gained from this site. Thank you I will be back!!Our site please check us out
June 12th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Relevant info! I didn’t know that spamming can be avoided by using these techniques
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Any recommendations other than pointbreak and fractal EA?
July 5th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Finally found the info I needed thanks to your great blog, thanks! ^^
July 8th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Thanks for given this nice post…
July 29th, 2009 at 3:10 am
I would like to invite you to come and join me on the easiest job on the plant where you can work just 2 to 3 hours a day from the comfort of your home as part time and make really good money in a short period of time and you will get $2000 bonus to your account to.All you have to do is visit this site and sign up for FREE.
YES…for FREE here at http://cashmailonline.blogspot.com
==================================================================
This can really change your life.One more thing,you can also advertise on the same site for free using some of the money that you make,and you can make more money by referraling more people.
It;s that easy…GO…NOW…TODAY!!!
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic must say I agree with your points!.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Do you think turning off comments entirely hurt SE rankings in any way?
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Agreed on the Chile experiment. ,
October 28th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
This article was beautiful. I agree with your points.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:46 am
i am still looking for a good SEO plugin for Wordpress. my blog is not ranking high enought for the keywords that i wanted to rank.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
i have been using Wordpress for 2 years but i still dont know how to do SEO using Wordpress, is there an SEO pluggin for Wordpress?.