January 6, 2010 | Blogging

The difficult thing about blogging with WordPress is the spam comments you have to deal with.

Everyday, there can be dozens of absolutely inane comments like these:

Some, however, are a little trickier:

They’re worded generically enough to seem legitimate, but they either link to a spam site, or they’re an attempt to get your WordPress installation to e-mail them. WordPress will notify commenters when new comments are posted. So, in other words, they get the e-mail address which you use to get notifications from WordPress. Regardless of whether you actually monitor that address, spammers can also use a brute-force method of trying hundreds or even thousands of different usernames at a given domain, some of which are likely to match.

Spam comments look bad on your blog when real readers are reading them. Finally, Google doesn’t like links to spam sites. It’ll mark you down for it, and can have an adverse effect on your rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Automatically stopping spam with Akismet

This is where Akismet comes in. Akismet is a WordPress plugin brought to you by the same people that make WordPress and run wordpress.com .

It tests the links in the comments you receive from its servers, and determines, to a high degree of confidence, whether the comments are spam. The exact criteria for Akismet marking a comment as spam aren’t publicly revealed, so as to prevent spammers from gaming the system.

Installing Akismet

Akismet is installed like any other WordPress plugin. Log in as admin, then go to Plugins, and click “Add New”.

In the Search box, type “Akismet” and hit Search.

Click on “Install” for Akismet in the search results:

Then click on “Install Now”:

Once Akismet is installed, click on the link to activate it:

The plugin is activated:

To enable Akismet, though you have to have what’s called an API key. Since running the Akismet service takes money, service is apportioned among free users. To do this, everyone gets a kind of password called an API key.

Getting an API Key for Akismet

To get an API key, you sign up for an account on wordpress.com:

Simply enter your desired username and e-mail address.

WordPress.com sends you a confirmation e-mail, and after confirming, you’re sent another e-mail that contains your API key.

If at any later time, you need to find out your API key, just log in to WordPress.com, and go to My Account: Profile:

The API key is the first item on the profile screen:

Copy it and paste it into your WordPress installation’s Akismet configuration screen:

Click on “Update options” and WordPress will verify the API key. After it’s verified, Akismet is operational:

Using Akismet

There’s nothing else that you have to do to run Akismet.

Akismet checks your comments, and puts the ones it thinks are spam into the WordPress spam bin. You should check it occasionally to ensure that a legitimate comment didn’t get marked spam. To go the the spam holding area, just click the “Spam” link that appears in the Dashboard when you first log in to WordPress:

You can unspam a comment by clicking the “Not Spam” link:

Allowing instant comments

Another thing you can do after installing Akismet is to allow instant comments. Normally, to screen for spam, most bloggers require that comments be approved before they will display on the blog. This often means delays in getting comments to appear, which leads to a less vibrant discussion.

Since one of the main reasons for comment approval is to avoid spam, with Akismet installed, you can stop requiring admin approval for comments. Go to Settings:

Click on Discussion. Then, in the “Before a comment appears” section, uncheck both checkboxes:

Summary

1. Install Akismet
2. Get and set a WordPress API key
3. Check the spam bin from time to time

Resources

Akismet Plugin Page

WordPress.com

How to Get a Wordpress API Key to Activate Akismet Plugin

Configuring and Using Akismet

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3 Responses to “How to Stop Spam in WordPress with the Akismet Plugin”

1. Tom says:

   January 6, 2010 at 1:52 pm

   Askimet is one of the best wordpress plugins. It get’s everything (sometimes a little too much though.)
2. Linwood Lounsberry says:

   February 2, 2010 at 12:42 pm

   Hi. Very interesting site. I found it on Bing. I will definately recommend it to my friends. Please keep up the great work.
3. Andrew Amberg says:

   March 20, 2010 at 5:29 am

   I know your secret too! I look at commenting in this way – since I’m relatively new to blogging, I always thought from the beginning that it was a two-way medium, where someone is starting a conversation that invites interaction, so I picked up the habit right away. In contrast, I’d think if some folks never commented when they first ventured into the blogosphere, it would be more difficult to jump in down the road (i.e. not a habit). Nevertheless, I agree with you on your last statement