Frustrated with having to clean up spam comments every day?
Website owners tend to turn off their comments section because they’re overwhelmed. Between the cryptocurrency promotions, sketchy link schemes, and endless “nice post” comments from obvious bots, managing spam has become a second job.
But here’s the thing: disabling comments means missing out on one of the most valuable aspects of running a website – building a genuine, engaged community.
Over the years, I’ve developed a system that actually works. It’s a combination of the right tools and smart settings that catch 99.9% of spam comments before they ever hit your dashboard.
Genuine reader interactions flow freely while spam gets filtered out automatically.
In this guide, I’ll share my complete anti-spam playbook with you.
Whether you’re drowning in spam right now or want to prevent future problems, I’ll show you how to transform your comments section from a spam magnet into a valuable community asset.
Ready to take back control of your comments section? Let’s dive in.
What’s In This Guide?
Here’s what I’ll cover today:
- Understanding WordPress Comment Spam
- Essential Tools for Fighting Comment Spam
- WordPress Native Anti-Spam Features
- Security & Prevention Strategies
- FAQs
First, let’s understand what modern spam is so that we’re better equipped to deal with it.
Understanding WordPress Comment Spam
Early on with WP101, as our community began to grow, so did the tide of spam comments. At first, it was just a trickle – generic “Great post!” comments with suspicious links. I would remove the links and still post the comments.
This was a bad idea. It was not only a waste of my time, but it also made our comment sections look unprofessional and potentially drove away genuine engagement.
I remember one week, I spent hours sifting through hundreds of spam comments, deleting them one by one. It felt like a never-ending task, pulling me away from creating the very WordPress tutorials our audience relies on.
Over the years, comment spam has evolved far beyond these obvious comments. So before we dive into solutions, let’s understand what we’re up against.
With the rise of AI, comment spam is quickly evolving. Here are the major categories of spam you can spot:
Bot-Generated Spam
These are automated comments posted by scripts. They are often done in massive volumes (thousands per hour).
You’ll usually see random compliments or generic phrases like “The author of this post genuinely understands what the user needs. Keep it up. I love your work.”
The problem with these flattering comments is that they frequently include suspicious links or hidden HTML.
Manual Spam
These comments are posted by real people, but they often come from content farms and are AI-generated to make the process faster. They may be hired agencies or freelancers whose jobs are to leave comments on hundreds of websites every day.
Now these comments may seem more sophisticated and are harder to detect because they will include relevant-looking comments.
The catch is that they have a hidden agenda which is usually to promote their own services or products subtly. Another reason would be to get valuable backlinks to boost their SEO.
Malicious Spam
Now, these are comments for which you should be on guard. They contain harmful links or code. Hackers attempt to exploit vulnerabilities on your site.
They may include SQL injections that can give the hacker control of your database. These comments could also harm your site visitors if clicked.
The last one is the biggest reason why you need to moderate comments thoroughly. In my experience, the impact of comment spam goes way beyond mere annoyance:
- Your time is wasted. Site owners sometimes spend hours moderating comments.
- Spammy links in your comments can hurt your search rankings, result in Google penalties, and reduce your site’s credibility.
- Genuine comments get buried. Readers are less likely to comment, and it reduces community interaction.
In the next section, I’ll show you the exact tools and settings I use to combat each type of spam effectively.
Essential Tools for Fighting Comment Spam
After years of testing different solutions, I’ve found that a multi-layered approach works best. Here are 2 anti-spam tools I use across all my WordPress sites to keep spam under control.
1. Akismet: The Foundation of Comment Protection
Akismet remains my go-to first line of defense for several reasons. They have a proven track record of over 100 billion spam comments blocked.
The plugin is built by Automattic (WordPress.com creators) and is continuously updated to catch new spam patterns.
When someone posts a comment, Akismet analyzes it in real-time and decides whether it’s legitimate or spam. It works silently in the background without slowing down your site. And perhaps most importantly, it catches spam before it ever hits your dashboard.
For personal blogs, Akismet offers a free plan that works well for most sites. Their premium version pricing varies geographically, but it’s usually around $8 per month. In my experience, even the paid plans are worth every penny when you consider the time saved from manual moderation.
Key Features
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- Automatic spam detection
- Machine learning
- Comment history tracking
- IP address monitoring
- Spam statistics and reporting
How to Use Akismet
Login to your WordPres site and go to the Plugins » Add New page in your WordPress dashboard. Here, search for Akismet, then install and activate the plugin.
Once done, Akismet will ask you to choose a plan. You can go through the different options they have. If you want the free plan, under “What is spam protection worth to you?”, bring the bar down to zero.
You’ll need to verify that you’re not using this for commercial purposes, and then you can complete your free sign-up.
You’ll get an API Key. Copy this key and head back to your WordPress site. Here, choose to “Manually enter an API key”.
On the next page, you can paste the API key and Akismet will start blocking spam for you.
You can access Akismet settings and configurations anytime you need by going to Settings » Akismet Anti-spam in your WordPress admin menu.
You’ll see statistics of how many spam comments Akismet has automatically blocked for you.
Below this, you’ll see options for Akismet. If you don’t want to see spam comments at all, you can choose to “Silently discard the worst and most pervasive spam so I never see it.”
If you want to make sure good comments don’t accidentally get deleted, then you can choose to “Always put spam in the Spam folder for review.”
Make sure you save any changes you make.
2. Thrive Comments: Enhanced Engagement
While Akismet handles the security side, Thrive Comments adds powerful community features. Thrive Comments turns your comment section into an interactive community platform. Users can upvote helpful comments, earn rewards for quality contributions, and engage in meaningful discussions.
The dashboard is beautifully designed with functionality in mind. You’ll find a comprehensive set of customization options right at your fingertips, alongside a real-time preview of your comments section.
This visual approach means you can see exactly how your changes will appear to your readers before pushing them live.
- Approve/Unapprove
- Edit
- Delegate
- Feature
- Save as Testimonial
- Spam
- Trash
The upvoting system is also powerful. Comments that add value naturally rise to the top, while low-quality responses sink to the bottom. This self-moderating aspect has saved me countless hours of manual moderation across sites.
The gamification elements are brilliant for encouraging participation. Users earn badges and recognition for constructive comments. I think this creates a positive feedback loop that encourages more quality discussions.
These are the 2 tools I use. Check out more comment tools here: Best WordPress Comments Plugins (Tested & Compared)
Next, I’ll show you how to optimize the built-in spam features WordPress offers.
WordPress Native Anti-Spam Features
WordPress comes with its own comment moderation settings. Let’s walk through each section of these options and understand what each one means and how to configure it effectively.
You can access this under Settings » Discussions in your WordPress menu.
Default Post Settings
These settings apply to all new posts you create:
- Allow people to submit comments on new posts – Keep this enabled if you want to build community engagement. This is the foundation of your comment system.
- Allow link notifications from other blogs and Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the post – I recommend disabling both. These are outdated features (pingbacks and trackbacks) that spammers often exploit.
Other Comment Settings
- Comment author must fill out name and email – Enable this. It helps prevent low-effort spam and gives you a way to contact legitimate commenters.
- Users must be registered and logged in to comment – Consider your audience here. For most blogs, leave this disabled initially. Enable it only if spam becomes unmanageable.
- Automatically close comments on old posts – I recommend enabling this and setting it to 14-30 days. Old posts often attract more spam than legitimate comments.
- Show comments cookies opt-in checkbox – Keep enabled for cookie consent and GDPR compliance.
- Enable threaded (nested) comments – Enable this, but limit nesting to 3-5 levels to keep discussions readable.
Comment Pagination
By breaking comments into pages, you can help your site’s performance and user experience. If you don’t get too many comments, this doesn’t matter.
For blogs with a lot of comments, consider setting “Break comments into pages” with 50 comments per page. Display the newest comments first by selecting “last page” as the default.
Email Notifications
Anyone posts a comment – Disable unless you have low comment volume
A comment is held for moderation – Enable to stay on top of moderation
Before a Comment Appears
Here, you can choose to manually approve every comment. Otherwise, if users have been previously approved, you can allow any future comments they make to be instantly approved and published.
I recommend leaving the default option here which is set to Comment author must have a previously approved comment.
Comment Moderation Rules
Hold a comment in the queue if it contains X or more links – Set this to 2. Multiple links are often indicators of spam.
There’s also a blank box where you can fill in common spam trigger words, or known author names, URLs, email, or IP addresses. This will then automatically send the comment for moderation.
Start with a basic list and expand based on your spam patterns.
Avatar Settings
Show Avatars – Enable this to add personality to your comments section. It will automatically fetch the user’s picture, if available, and display it with the comment.
For most websites, you ideally want to set the Maximum Rating to ‘G’ for general audiences
You can add a generic avatar for users who don’t have one. Choose one that you like or, better yet, one that matches your website’s theme best.
Make sure to save all your changes.
Remember, these settings aren’t permanent. As your site grows and spam patterns change, you’ll need to adjust them accordingly. The key is finding the right balance between protecting your site from spam and maintaining an engaging community. Start with stricter settings and gradually relax them as you build a regular commenting community
Now you know how to manage comments in WordPress and keep spam at bay. I’ll also show you a few more essential security measures to minimize all kinds of spam, malware attacks, and bots coming to your site.
Security & Prevention Strategies
The measures below will help keep your site free from spam and prevent it from getting hacked.
Use a Firewall to Combat Spam Comments: Security plugins like Sucuri include firewall features that can block malicious traffic and spam bots from even reaching your website. Find the right security plugin for your site here »
Use Honeypot to Catch Spambots: Plugins like Antispam Bee and WPForms utilize the honeypot technique. They add a hidden field to your comment form that only bots tend to fill out, allowing you to identify and block them. Learn How to Use WPForms »
Add Google reCAPTCHA Verification: Google reCAPTCHA adds a challenge-response test to your comment form, helping to distinguish between humans and bots. WPForms also supports reCAPTCHA. You can add reCAPTCHA through various plugins or directly within some form builders.
If not reCAPTCHA, several other Captcha WordPress plugins are available, such as Really Simple CAPTCHA and Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA. However, be mindful of user experience, as some CAPTCHAs can be frustrating for legitimate commenters.
Always Back Up Your Website: Use a backup plugin or your web hosting‘s backup solution to keep a copy of your website and its data safe. When (not if) things go wrong, you can quickly restore your backup and have your site back to normal in no time.
These are just a few important tips. You’ll want to see our The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide for a complete strategy.
You can also use The Ultimate WordPress Security Checklist to go step by step through security measures you need to add to your site.
Next, I’ll answer commonly asked questions about WordPress comments.
FAQS on WordPress Comments
Why am I suddenly getting so many spam comments?
Sudden spikes in spam comments usually happen when your site gains visibility or gets listed in spammer databases. This often occurs after your content goes viral, your search rankings improve, or your site gets mentioned on popular platforms. Sometimes it’s simply because spam bots have discovered your site and added it to their target lists.
Will disabling comments hurt my SEO?
While disabling comments won’t directly harm your SEO, you’ll miss out on valuable engagement signals that search engines use to evaluate your site’s authority. Comments often add natural long-tail keywords, fresh content, and demonstrate active user engagement. Instead of turning off comments completely, I recommend implementing proper spam protection to maintain healthy discussions.
How many anti-spam plugins should I use?
Less is more when it comes to anti-spam plugins. I’ve found that using just 2-3 core tools is the most effective approach. Akismet should be your foundation, paired with either Thrive Comments or another engagement-focused solution. If needed, add reCAPTCHA as a third layer. Using too many anti-spam plugins can slow down your site and create conflicts.
Why are legitimate comments being marked as spam?
False positives happen for several reasons. The most common is when a commenter’s IP address has been previously used for spam activities. Other triggers include using multiple links, certain phrases that match spam patterns, or commenting too frequently. If you’re using a VPN or proxy, that can also trigger spam filters. The key is finding the right balance in your filter settings.
Will anti-spam plugins slow down my site?
The impact on your site’s performance depends largely on your setup. Akismet alone has minimal impact, but running multiple spam plugins simultaneously can significantly slow things down. Poor configurations or outdated plugins can cause major performance issues. That’s why I recommend using only necessary tools and keeping them updated.
Is it worth paying for premium anti-spam tools?
Consider the value of your time. If you’re spending hours each week moderating comments manually, premium tools quickly pay for themselves. They often provide better protection, more features, and dedicated support. For commercial sites, premium tools are a small investment compared to the potential costs of spam-related issues.
How often should I check spam comments?
The frequency depends on your site’s activity level. For small sites, a weekly review is usually sufficient. Larger sites need daily checks to catch any false positives. The key is developing a routine that works for your site’s traffic patterns. Never empty your spam folder without a quick review – you might lose valuable legitimate comments.
Can spam comments harm my site?
While most spam is merely annoying, some can pose serious security risks. Spam comments might contain SQL injection attempts, malicious links, or cross-site scripting attacks. In extreme cases, massive spam attacks can overload your server. This is why proper protection isn’t just about keeping your comments clean – it’s about securing your site.
Keep your anti-spam strategy simple. Start with Akismet as your foundation, add Thrive Comments if you need enhanced engagement features, and include reCAPTCHA only if necessary. This combination will catch most spam while keeping your site running smoothly.
Remember that your comments section is valuable. Don’t fall into the trap of disabling comments entirely – you’ll lose the community engagement that makes your site dynamic and engaging. Instead, use the tools and strategies we’ve discussed to manage spam effectively.
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