WordPress spam is a common problem that webmasters have to face. With spam messages showing up on your site, visitors may perceive your site as poor quality and search engines may mark your site as insecure.WordPress is a popular content management system, but one of the challenges that comes with it is dealing with spam messages and content monitoring on your site. Not only does spam affect the user experience, it can also pose a risk to the credibility and security of your website.

What is WordPress Spam?

WordPress spam messages are undesirable or irrelevant comments on a website, usually generated by automated bots (called spambots). These messages usually contain advertisements, links, inappropriate content, or spam, and are intended to post invalid or harmful information on a website.WordPress websites often allow visitors to comment below a post, which is an interactive way for readers to engage and share their opinions. The presence of spam comments makes it necessary for website owners or administrators to spend time and effort to deal with this unwanted content.

Preventing Spam with WordPress Background Settings

Protecting your site from comment spam starts in the backend of WordPress, and we'll be using built-in WordPress features to manage the options in the comments section.

1、Allow registered users to post messages

One way to combat spam is to put additional barriers in the way of spammers, which can be done through theOnly registered users are allowed to post messagesto do this. Go to the backend of the site and open the sidebar's "set up"menu, and then go to the "talk over"Settings page. On the "Other Message Settings"Under the section, select "Users must be registered and logged in to post messages" option to save your changes.

2,Open Message Audit

Managing messages is a great way to protect your website from spam. Messages can be moderated using the built-in features in WordPress, as you have full control over the messages posted on your site. You can do this by going to "set up"→"talk over" and scroll down to enable message review. From here, you can set WordPress to notify you via email when a new message appears so you can check if it's spam.

Another option is to approve each message before posting it manually, select the Message must be manually approved option to enable this feature. To allow previously approved users to post new messages without manual approval, check the "Comment author must have a previously approved message"Options.

3,Making a Blacklist Keyword List

Spam messages containing certain keywords may be found on your site, these messages can be automatically placed in a spam folder to save time. You can blacklist keywords and messages containing these keywords will be automatically deleted. Choose your words carefully so that you don't inadvertently delete comments from well-meaning users.

Under WordPress Discussion Settings, scroll down until you see the "Blocked Message Keywords" option. Then, fill in the keywords you want to block. If you care about specific keywords but don't want comments automatically deleted, you can set WordPress to flag you each time you post a comment. When keywords are listed in the message review section, messages containing those words will go to the message review queue instead of the spam folder. Notifications of potential spam will be received and real messages will not be deleted.

4,Reduce the number of links in your message

One of the main characteristics of spam messages is a large number of hyperlinks. Therefore, messages with a certain number of links can be set to enter the moderation queue before posting.

5,Completely disable messages

Turning off the comments section may cost you valuable information or questions from visitors, however, this option will eliminate any possibility of spam on the site. This option will restrict people from posting comments. You can also delete all messages if you wish.

To deactivate messages completely, at the top of the Discussion Settings page, deselect "Open for users to post messages in new articles" option. Please note that people can still leave comments on previously published articles. To deactivate comments on previous posts, you need to change the settings for each published post individually.

Prevent WordPress Spam with Captcha

Many spam messages aremechanical personLeft behind, that's why CAPTCHA can be a great tool for you. reCAPTCHA generates a form or question to prove that the user is not a robot, and can be added to your WordPress site using a WordPress plugin. One of the best options is to use Google reCAPTCHA. The reCAPTCHA part is a form that website visitors click on when posting a message to prove that the user is not a robot.A place to prove they're human.. It will stop spam posting by verifying that someone has filled out your message and stops most spam attempts. Visitors tend to feel better when they see it because they see that you take site security seriously and it increases message interaction.

Block WordPress Spam with Plugins

Spam can be blocked more easily in WordPress by installing anti-spam plugins. Here are some good options:

1,Akismet

Akismet Spam Protection is a free plugin developed by Automattic that checks all comments and filters out messages that look like spam. Since spam messages often contain multiple hyperlinks, Akismet displays URLs in the message body to show hidden or misleading links. Moderators can also view the number of messages approved by each user to save time.

2,Disable Comments

It is possible to use a built-in WordPress feature and disable messages on discussion pages. Disabling comments does not close the comments section of previously posted posts. You can use the Deactivate Comments WordPress plugin to completely disable comments on all posts. You can individually select which posts, pages or media files visitors are allowed to comment on.

3. Use a firewall to block WordPress comment spam.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) It is a web application firewall that is used to protect websites and applications from various web attacks. It sits between the website and application servers and acts as a defense, detecting and blocking attacks that could pose a threat to the security of the website.

The main features of WAF include:

1. Attack Detection and Blocking: WAF can detect common website attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), etc., and block these attacks from entering a website or application.
2. Vulnerability patches: WAF can check applications for vulnerabilities, and even if the application itself is vulnerable, WAF can prevent attackers from exploiting those vulnerabilities by blocking specific requests.
3. Mitigating DDoS Attacks: WAF can assist in defending against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by filtering large amounts of invalid traffic to ensure that legitimate users are able to access websites normally.
4. Logging and Monitoring: WAFs typically generate logs that record information such as attack attempts, blocked requests, etc., which helps security professionals with security event analysis and tracking.
5. Customized rules: Administrators can customize security rules to address site-specific risks and threats based on specific needs.

WAF is an important tool for providing security at the application level, helping to minimize risks to websites and applications and ensuring the security of data and users.

How do I use WAF?

Using WAF (Web Application Firewall) can involve the following general steps, but the actual steps may vary depending on the WAF solution. The following is a basic guide:

1. Choosing the Right WAF Solution: Choose a WAF solution that fits the needs of your website and application. This could be a cloud-based WAF service (such as AWS WAF,Cloudflare WAF), a hardware WAF appliance, or a software WAF solution.
2. Installing and Configuring WAF: Depending on the solution chosen, follow the appropriate installation and configuration steps. This may include installing software on the web server, setting up cloud-based services, or deploying hardware devices.
3. Defining Security Policies: Define security policies based on the needs of your application and website. This includes specifying the types of requests to allow or block, setting up attack detection rules, and setting up custom firewall rules.
4. Enabling Basic Security: Enable basic security features such as protection against SQL injection, cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). These are common attacks that WAF can help prevent.
5. Configuring DDoS Protection: If your WAF solution offers DDoS protection, configure the parameters accordingly to ensure that your website is protected against decentralized denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
6. Monitoring and adjustment: Monitor WAF logs and reports on a regular basis to detect any unusual activity. Based on the monitoring results, security policies are adjusted to ensure that the WAF does not falsely report or miss any real attacks.
7. Ongoing updates and maintenance: Regularly update your WAF software or configuration to ensure you have the most up-to-date security. Attacker techniques can evolve, so it's critical to keep your WAF up to date.
8. Backup and recovery: Ensure that you regularly back up your WAF settings before making any changes. This will help you quickly return to a normal state if something unexpected happens.

Depending on the specific needs and WAF solution, these steps may vary.

reach a verdict

In this article, a variety of effective ways to prevent WordPress spamming are explored, including the application of plug-ins, the use of CAPTCHAs, and features built into WordPress. Spam not only affects the professional image of your website, it can also be detrimental to security and user experience. By using a quality plugin, we were able to automatically detect and filter potential spam messages, reducing the administrator's workload. Meanwhile, CAPTCHA application effectively prevents automated bot submissions and improves website security.