Search for:
spam comment in wordpress
How to kick out Comment Spam from WordPress

How to Stop Spam Comments on WordPress Website

Do you want to kick out Comment Spam from WordPress website? These comments are annoying to webmasters as well as readers. So, it it better to kick them out of your website.

Spam is the unwanted message or comments you get in your email inbox or the comment section of your website or youtube.

Everyone hates unwanted messages. So you are probably here because you are getting unwanted messages in your WordPress website comment section.

To start, let’s understand spam first.

What is Spamming?

Spam is any kind of unwanted messages sent out in bulk whether in email or comments on your website

 Simply, spamming means sending unwanted bulk messages online.

What is Comment Spam?

You are here and reading this post means you are getting spam comments on your WordPress website or blog and you want to know about it and want to get the solution to combat spam in Comments.

Comment Spam is nothing but that some webmasters exploit the comment section of other websites to promote their website by posting their website links. Since these are unwanted comments and they are unrelated to the post by the Post author, these are called spam.

Sometimes these spam comments may be malware and viruses.

Why Comment Spam is Bad?

You can say, Why Comment Spam is bad? He is reading my content and commenting on my Content. These comments bring interaction to my website and blah, blah, blah.

But wait!

Let me clear you, the spammers

1. Don’t read your Content

2. They are not bringing interaction to your Post

3. They just paste the same comment which is linking to their website on all websites.

Why Comment Spamming?

One of the reasons for Spamming in the comment section of websites is those spammers want to use your website comment section to improve their website ranking by getting clicks from your website.

Is Comment Spam Harmful?

Search Engines penalize both the spammer and the website which is allowing spam comments on their website. Because, spam is the unwanted comments on your website, and they provide the link which will take the reader to the website which they won’t want to go to. It can also take you to insecure websites or viruses and malware.

In other words, if you are approving spam comments on your website then your website’s PageRank also gets affected.

So, it is better to moderate your comments and approve those comments which are genuine and related to your content.

How to Moderate comments without plugin in WordPress

There are several ways you can moderate your comment section in WordPress, the best way is by moderating comments in discussion settings.

Dashboard >> Settings >> Discussion

To Fight Spam Comments and reduce Spamming enable these settings in your WordPress Discussion settings

1. Comment Author must fill out name and email

2. Users must be registered and logged in to comment

3. Comment must be manually approved

4. Comment author must have a previously approved comment

If you enable these settings, you will cut down the speed of spammers, they have to log in before they comment. So, many of the spammers or spambots will be stopped from commenting.

But Wait! Still, you have the mastermind spammers who play with the system and use unethical ways to promote their website.

So, some spammers may log in to comment on your website, and the first 2-3 comments, may be very genuine, and after getting approved from your side. They start spamming.

So, you should be aware of this kind of spammers.

So, you should manually approve comments on your website

kicking out Comment Spam from WordPress

How to Stop Spam Comments using Plugin in WordPress

There are a lot of plugins present in the WordPress Plugin directory which fight the spammers.

One of the worst things about these plugins is that they slowed down your website.

Ultimately, increasing the load time of your website. And, this will have negative effects on your PageRank in Google or other search engines.

One of the best plugins to combat spam comments is Akismet. This plugin is developed by WordPress only. So, it won’t affect your website load time.

But you have to install the API key from their website.

Akismet is free for bloggers, and it will also come up with paid versions for businesses and e-commerce websites.

On average Akismet stop 7,500,000 spam Comments from the web Per Hour.

You can read in detail about Akismet here.

I used to get 100s of comments daily on my new website, but after activating Akismet I am not getting any spam comments on my website.

There are other plugins also that fight spam comments. But, I prefer Akismet spam protection till now.

 

Comment: Which Comment Spam Protection are you using?

If you like this article, do like and share it with your friends and subscribe to our Blog for WordPress tips.

Comment Moderation in WordPress

Comment Moderation in WordPress

Do You want to moderate Comment in WordPress? Let’s first understand what comment is?

Comments allow the visitors to give feedback or ask questions regarding your Post or Page. By this, the visitor can have a discussion with the Post Author.

Comments are one of the most important aspects by which you can engage visitors on your website.

Comment Moderation in WordPress

What are Comments in WordPress?

Comments allow visitors to write anything about your WordPress post. At the end of each post, you have a section in which a user can write something about your WordPress post. This section is called the Comment section.

Understanding WordPress Comments Admin Panel

As a WordPress developer, you need to know about WordPress Comments. Let dig deep into the Comments topic.

In the Comment section of the WordPress Admin Panel,

On the right-hand side, you will see

1. All: All means, all the comments and pingbacks you get on your website

2. Mine: Mine means, all the comments or replies you have given on your website, i.e., your comments on your website.

3. Pending: Pending means, the visitors commented on your Website, and yet you haven’t approved it. It is pending approval.

4. Approved: This section has the comments on your website that you have approved.

5. Spam: Spam is the unwanted comments, this section contains the comments those are marked as spam by you. In WordPress, Akismet Plugin filters all the spam comments and saves your website from malicious comments/links.

In the Spam section, you can Delete permanently the comment from your website, you can see the History of the Comment and You can also move back it to the comments by clicking on No Spam as shown in the screenshot.

6. Bin: As we have dustbin for waste materials in our houses. Likewise, the deleted comments by the admin will be in Bin in the WordPress website.

In the Bin Section, You have the following options

You can mark the deleted Comment as Spam here, you can Delete Permanently the comment or you can restore it back to comments.

7. Search Comments: As we have a search option on our WordPress website, so that users can search the website, likewise, in the comment section we have search comments option on the top right-hand side, by which administrators can search the comments.

Comment Moderation in WordPress

When you hover on any comment you will see the following options

How to Approve a Comment in WordPress?

Approve/Un approve: As shown in the figure, the first option is to Approve if the comment is pending and you haven’t approved it till now.

Then Approve option will be highlighted. If you click on the Approve, the comment will be approved and it can be displayed on your website.

How to Unapprove a Comment in WordPress?

After approving the comment, when you hover on the section below comment, you will see the unapprove option highlighted. If you want to change the status of the comment to pending, then click on Unapprove.

How to Reply a Comment from WordPress Admin panel?

Reply: If You want to reply to a particular comment through the admin panel, then click on the Reply button. Then You will get the text area with the heading reply to comment. Here you can reply to a particular comment, same like you write a WordPress post. After writing, click on the reply button to post it.

Can I Edit a Comment in WordPress Admin Panel?

Yes, you can edit the comment in the WordPress admin panel. We have two methods for Editing Comments

1. Quick Edit: The next option is Quick Edit, In WordPress, You can Edit comments in two ways: Like You Edit Posts and Pages in WordPress.

In Quick Edit, you (the administrator) can Edit the comment text of the commentor. You can also write the name of the author with his/her email address and URL to a website if the author has a website.

2. Edit: The other Option for editing comments is Edit, Edit is advanced version of Quick Edit.

In the Edit option, besides editing the comment text & author details, you can see the History of Comment. Here, you can also see the status of the comment whether it is approved or pending. And, you can approve it or make it spam from the edit option.

You can also delete the comment, by clicking the move to bin option as shown in the figure.

How to check history of Comment in WordPress?

History of comment means when it got approved or any editing was done to it.

If you have the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin, then you will see in the history of the comment, Akismet cleared this comment. That means Akismet checked whether the comment is spam or not. If it is not spam, then Akismet will clear the comment. Else, it will automatically reject the spam.

Then, it will show when the administrator approved that comment.

How to Spam a comment in WordPress?

If you think the comment is spam, then you can click on Spam. The Comment will be moved to the spam folder.

If you realize that the comment is spammed mistakenly, then you can go to the spam folder and click on Not Spam. Here you can also delete the comment permanently from the website.

How to Delete a Comment in WordPress?

If you want to delete a comment in WordPress, just click on the option Bin beside the Spam option. When you click on Bin, then the comment will be moved to the Bin folder and can be deleted completely from the bin folder.

Bulk Options in WordPress Comments:

Like Post & Pages, we have Bulk Options for comments moderation also. In the Bulk Options, as shown in the figure. You have 4 options: namely

1. Un Approve,

2. Approve,

3. Mark as Spam,

4. Move to Bin

You can select the comments, and click on select one of the options above, and then click on Apply.

By this, you can Approve comments in bulk, Mark comments as spam in bulk, move comments to the bin in bulk, and un-approve comments in bulk.

Filter Options in WordPress Comments

The other option at the top of the comments is All Comment Types.

In this drop-down, you will see two options namely:

Comments and Pings.

Comments are the feedbacks by your visitors as discussed above.

Pings are the free backlinks you get from other websites. That means the other website links your website in their post or pages. It is called Ping in your comment section.

Now, you can filter out Comments or Pings here. Just Select Ping and click on Filter you can see all the backlinks to your website.

Understanding Comment in Detail:

Now, let’s dig deep to understand the comment.

As shown in Figure we have 9 things to see in the comment.

#1 is the Comment Author name

#2 is the number of comments approved

#3 is the URL to the websites of the comment author

# 4 is the Commentor IP Address

# 5 is the Comment text

#6 is the post name, on which the commentor commented.

#7 View Post is the post link

#8 is the number of comments on the Post

#9 is the Date & Time of the comment.

The other settings of the Comments, we will discuss in our other post. Meanwhile, you can go to your WordPress Discussion settings and check the Comments Settings there.

If you find the article helpful, do like and share it. If you have any feedback feel free to comment so that we will improve.