How to stop spam on WordPress in your site's forums and comments?

Who has never come across comments like "Great article! I wrote something similar over at [link to a site]. Take a look!", "Thanks! [link to a site]." or even _"[link to a site] 🙂 [link to a site]. 🙂 [link to a site]."?

If you run a site with a blog section, you have almost certainly encountered a few spammers. From the more elaborate to the least creative, the practice is easy to spot. In a WordPress spam scenario, an internet user creates a WordPress account, leaves comments on everything they can by copying and pasting stock messages that lack any subtlety, and then never returns.
Fortunately, this practice is simple to prevent — and we will explain how.

How to stop spam on WordPress?

WordPress spammers are particularly harmful. Whether they are trying to place links to their site (to boost its traffic) or to an online virus (of the "You are our 1,000th visitor! Claim your prize now!" variety), they use bots and other AI-driven algorithms to achieve their ends.

This is what allows them to post so much spam at once. And it is also what can help you block that spam. Here is why…

1. Do not remove the rel="nofollow" attribute from your links

This tip requires no action on your part. WordPress automatically adds the rel="nofollow" attribute to every link added in a comment. This attribute makes the links useless from an SEO perspective — they will have no impact on the search engine ranking of the site they point to.

As a result, spammers will be less inclined to target you if their aim is simply to place links to their own site. They will see that it would bring them no benefit.

Therefore, do not use a plugin or any other means to remove the nofollow attribute from your site's comments.

2. Protect your forums with a password

Where forums allow you to add a password for protection, do so. This does not mean that users must be registered to post a message, but that the forum content itself will be locked behind a password.

In this way, even if a spammer registers on your forum, they will not be able to access it (you can, for example, send forum access details by email to genuine members).

Moreover, with protected content, Google has no access. Spammers looking to place links to their own site to boost its SEO therefore have no incentive to target your forum.

3. Limit the number of messages within a given period

As mentioned earlier, spammers use bots and other automated software to carry out their work. It is therefore not uncommon to find a dozen messages posted within less than a minute.

You can counter this in WordPress settings by specifying a minimum time interval that must elapse before a second message can be posted.

For example, you can prevent users (spammers included) from posting 2 messages within a 10-second window. They would need to wait 11 seconds before posting a second message (and, in general, no human non-spammer can post 2 messages in under 10 seconds).

Similarly, you can prevent a message from being edited within the 5 minutes following its creation. Why is this useful? Some spammers post an apparently innocuous message to slip through the net, then immediately edit their post to insert their link and other unwanted content. By preventing them from editing their message during the first 5 minutes, you stop this process in its tracks.

What tools are available to prevent spam on my WordPress site?

WordPress regularly releases security updates and is supported by numerous protection plugins. Some of these plugins are particularly effective at preventing spam on your website!

1. Stop Signup Spam

The WP plugin Stop Signup Spam is fairly straightforward: when someone registers on your site, their email address and IP address are compared against the Stop Forum Spam database. If they have already been reported as spam, they will be rejected automatically.

An additional benefit: the plugin is free.

2. WP-SpamShield

The WP-SpamShield plugin is a paid solution, costing $28. It protects your site from spam without resorting to the classic CAPTCHA systems and "anti-robot" questions.

This plugin covers the comments section, contact forms, account creation, and every aspect of a site that could be targeted by a spammer.

WP-SpamShield uses an algorithm that automatically distinguishes human users from spam bots.

When an element is blocked, the user receives a message and a chance to rectify the situation. A human user will therefore be satisfied to be treated as such and to be offered a solution to a possible blockage. A "spam bot" type user, on the other hand, will be unable to respond to the message and will simply remain blocked.

3. Akismet

Akismet is a WordPress anti-spam plugin that automatically filters comments on your site.

Spam and unwanted content will therefore not appear on your site without your explicit approval.

In addition, Akismet is a particularly popular plugin in the WordPress community. It requires an API key to activate and is free. A paid version exists for commercial sites.

Spam is everywhere and will always find a way to infiltrate your site. As such, thinking about anti-spam protection — or even several layers of it — is essential.
The tools and best practices listed above should help you eliminate a large proportion of these unwanted messages.
If that still proves insufficient, experiment with every option available to you to put an end to spam.

Source: Elegantthemes

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