I love getting comments on my blog, but managing them can be a pain.
A friend called me recently saying, “Lisa, help me! Help! My blog is full of spam!”
Sure enough, she had about 2 dozen comments on one of her blog posts, and every single one of them was spam. She didn’t know how they got there, and more importantly, she didn’t know how to get rid of them.
What’s the key to managing spam?
One word – prevention. It’s really not that difficult. Here are the three key things you can do to stop spammers in their tracks.
Activate Akismet
Akismet is a plugin that is built into WordPress. It’s very effective at blocking spammers – it marks suspicious comments as spam and files them away in a spam folder. I still go through my spam comments occasionally and make sure that a valid comment didn’t get filed there by mistake – but 99.9% of the time Akismet does it correctly. If a spam comment happens to get through the filter, you can still mark it as spam, and Akismet won’t let that commenter through again.
Once you activate the plugin you’ll be prompted to go get an API key. Just click on the link and follow the instructions. It’s really very simple. There are plenty of other plugins out there, but I find Akismet does the job quite well.
Require moderation
Keep the door to your blog locked by setting things up so that you screen all first time commenters. In your blog’s settings, go to the “comments” section, and set it to require moderation for first-time commenters. That means if someone comes to your blog and comments for the first time, you need to actually approve the comment before it will show up on your blog. By choosing this option, you keep control over the comments – and after someone has been approved once, you won’t have to approve them again.
I don’t recommend requiring moderation for every comment all the time, because that just discourages people from posting. Remember, comments encourage discussion among your readers, so don’t put an unnecessary barrier there.
Know who you’re approving
Once you’ve activated Akismet and set up moderation, this is the most critical piece to stopping spammers. Because you’ve chosen the “moderate once” option, that means that if you approve a comment from a spammer, you’ve opened the door wide open for them to flood your blog with spam comments. This is what happened to my friend.
Be very careful about who you approve. Don’t just blindly approve every comment that gets through Akismet, assuming it’s ok. You still need to pay attention.
How do you tell the difference between a real comment and spam?
Spammers are smart – sure, you’ll see a lot of junk that’s obviously spam, but often you’ll see something that’s not so obvious. It looks like it might be legit…but you’re not sure.
In this case I look at the URL – if it’s something like bestdomainsearch.us, that’s most likely spam – but I might go visit the site to be sure (just be careful that you don’t open your computer up to a virus by clicking on something you shouldn’t). You can usually tell pretty quickly if the site is legit or not. If it has lots of ads and not much real content, it’s a scraper site and you don’t want to approve that comment. Look for an “about” page, or a contact page. Most of these types of sites won’t have one – or if they do they’re junk.
Still not sure? Remove the URL
Spammers post to get links back to their sites, so if you remove the URL that removes the link. Just edit the comment, remove the URL and you’re done.
With a little practice, you’ll get really good at spotting spam comments
Don’t ever be afraid to mark a comment as spam if you’re not sure. Sure, you risk blocking a real commenter, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Questions? Comments? Post them below!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
As you know, this happened to me a few months ago. My blog was deluged with spam after I accepted a comment that was very complimentary of my writing but a little off in the language (syntax and reference) and the domain name was for a group site. I intuitively knew it was spam but the spammer promised to tell all his friends and send them to my site. Boy did he ever! Thankfully, you took care of this for me! I would encourage folks to use their intuition or gut instinct — if it feels like spam, smells like spam, looks like spam, delete it!
Lisa recently posted..Jack of All Trades, Master of None — Do You Desire Mastery or Direction?
I have visions of high school – when you invite a few people to a party and half the school shows up…
Great advice!
One more quick tip about reviewing comments for spam: the less-obvious spammers don’t say anything specific about your post or the topic you’ve written about. Instead, they’ll say something generic like “I really like your site. The articles are very interesting.”
Instant delete!
Mary C. Weaver, CSCS recently posted..Exercise = your personal time machine
Hi Mary – yes, that’s a big clue-in! Thanks for pointing that out.
Im finding it very hard to tell what is spam and what isn’t on my new site, I feel a little let down I thought people where actually visiting it – ow well I’m installing Akismet now. thanks a bunch
Hi Amy – don’t feel bad, you’re certainly not alone. These spammers get harder and harder to spot. Check the URL that they’re linking to, and when in doubt, delete the link – or delete the comment altogether.
Akismet will help – I promise.
Thank you Lisa! and thanks for your ‘real’ comment
amy recently posted..My new short film: Feather
Lisa,
Thanks for your post, another great tip would be to have have a capture code at for commenters to enter.
Filters out the robots..
Nice post:)
John recently posted..Why you need to provide value before becoming an Affiliate Marketer
Hi John – yes, captcha is a good tool as well. Thanks for stopping by!
Would help if I could type.
Sorry about that – meant to say foot of post!
Nice post:)
John recently posted..Why you need to provide value before becoming an Affiliate Marketer
Hello, Lisa.
I have a little question about Akismet as a manager for blog spam. When I will allow someone’s comment that is in spam or in awaiting approval (any of those) will then Akismet publish their comments without my approval? I can’t find any option about this in Akismet.
Jean recently posted..Les arnaques sur internet : Même les journaux écrivent sur le sujet.
Hi Jean –
Yes, once you approve a comment, you’re giving permission and Akismet will let future comments from that person through.
I have a Wordpress blog that’s mostly technical stuff that I stuck on the web so as not to lose things…. I was getting a ton of SPAM and I think you have to pay for Askimet, as I recall – and I’m poor. I installed a plug-in called “WP Anti Spam” and blocked a bunch of words – and, of course, I require moderation for all comments. The word blocking cut the spam comments to almost nothing. Seem as though they use a lot of superlatives, (eg. “awesome”, “wonderful”, “amazing”, etc.). It really shouldn’t be that hard to determine what’s SPAM as it’s always very general – and usually weird hyperbole.
Hi Guy – Thanks for that suggestion. Yes, Akismet used to be free and unless you had an account at that time there will be a small charge to use it. It sounds like you have a good system going. I’ll add that plugin to my list of recommendations. As you say, moderation is the key.
As I’m sure you realize, by flagging those particular words you run the risk of blocking valid comments, so you should scan your spam folder regularly and make corrections where needed.
Thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation!