In this post, we will show you the preferred way of preventing spam comments on your WordPress blog. Also, we will walk you through the process of removing links from comments. Everything will happen automatically and without any manual action.
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS (content management system). However, its built-in feature is not capable enough to identify & prevent spam comments. You can disable comments from your Dashboard or create a blacklist of certain words, IPs, etc. But these are not efficient ways of preventing spammers. And so, your real visitors may also suffer. Luckily, there are some great security plugins out there. So you don’t need to cut the head to cure headaches.
Two Security Plugins for Preventing Spam Comments & Removing Links
You can use Google reCAPTCHA to prevent bot commenting, but what if someone takes time to make a spam comment manually? Also, you can use Akismet Plugin to prevent malicious content on your blog. But it has a bit of hassle for setup & configuration. To be able to use Akismet, you do need to signup for a separate account for it and WordPress.Com account, and also you have to obtain an API key. And it’s not free for every type of website. Most importantly, Akismet detects spam & malicious content based on its global database. It’s a good thing and also a bad thing if their database does not contain information about new spammers. However, below are the two plugins that will stop spam commenting by 100%. Without farther ado let’s get started:
Antispam Bee
It’s an incredibly powerful security plugin which will prevent spam comment in the first place. Most importantly, it will not interrupt your real readers from commenting. Also, it will not slow down your website. It automatically detects spam comments and directly sends them to the spam-folder or removes it immediately according to your choice. Another cool thing about this plugin- it does not require any settings or configuration. You can just install & activate the plugin and it will do its job precisely. It will also send you a notification by email when it detects a spam comment. However, you have the option to make some adjustments such as whether to delete spam comments or held for moderation, etc. Though it’s not mandatory, but you can do it from its settings.
It’s a one-click configurable antispam plugin that has over 600,000 active installations with great reviews. So you can not deny it. Only with this single plugin, you can block more than 95% of spam comments. Let’s block the rest of the 5% spammers.
Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools
This plugin removes all the links from comments. It becomes very handy for preventing spammers from manual comment. Google reCAPTCHA and other human verification tools can help to prevent bot spamming. But there are other spammers who manually write irrelative comments with bad links & awful intentions. However, this plugin will save the day. Once you install & activate the plugin, you will find an option called “QC CLR Settings” on your WordPress Dashboard. Click on the settings and enable two features mentioned in the below screenshot:
And don’t forget to “Save Changes“. Now you are all set!
By enabling the first option “Remove WEBSITE Field from Comment Form” will remove the “Website Field” from the comment form. If you are not sure- this is the link that makes the author’s (commenter) name a clickable link. See the two screenshots below for more clarification.
And by enabling another option “Disable turning URLs into hyper-links in comments” will remove any links from the comment body.
Well done! Now you know about how to keep your WordPress website safe from spammers. But if you are curious to know the reasons for spam commenting, you can read further.
What Is the Main Reason for Spam Comment
Backlink: Shady people leave spam comments for getting backlinks. So they can get more visitors to their websites from your blog. Good backlinks also help to get a higher rank on search, especially dofollow backlinks. However, all the comment backlinks are nofollow by default. But it still has some value for generating traffics. And that is the main reason for spammers to leave spam comments.
If you are not sure about dofollow & nofollow links, you can take a skim through this post.
Advertisement: It’s another reason for spam comments. This type of comments generally contains sexual product links or links from porn sites. Sometimes this type of comment is very hard to find. Especially if they make a slightly related comment based on your topic and if they do not put any link directly to the comment body. But if you click the author link (name of the commenter), it may redirect to an awful website which you were not ready for.
Now you know the reasons for it. But if you still have questions, feel free to ask in the comment.
If you are seeking a way to monetize your WordPress blog, read this short article.
