So, you have your first WordPress site… you log into your dashboard and begin installing and configuring the backend with some great plugins and you notice the “Akismet” plugin which automatically comes with WordPress. But you ignore it, thinking it has no real relevance. A few days later, you have a few blog posts up and you are actually getting some comments; but the only thing is that about 50% of those comments are SPAM!
What happened?
Well, remember that little lone plugin that you avoided? You forgot to configure it? Well, that is the answer to wordpress spam comment problems. It stops the spam right in its tracks.
What is the Akismet Plugin all about?
It is the Akismet plugin and it is a standard default plugin included in the WordPress installation that helps you to eliminate all of those silly unwanted spam comments you get on your blog posts.
This handy plugin is also known as Automatic Kismet, and it is a spam filtering service created by Automatic. For those who do not know, Automatic is the corporation behind the WordPress name, brand, and software.
The main reason why you need this great plugin is that Akismet attempts to filter link spam from blog comments and spam TrackBack pings using its own algorithm. In technical terms, the algorithm combines the information about spam captured on various blogs and then blocks the future spam using the spam rules developed from the collected data. In laymen’s terms, Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
It is well worth the brief moment to do it and avoid years of spamming chaos. Akismet does charge for API keys for businesses. But they do offer FREE API keys for personal sites and blogs. Here is a breakdown:
To date Akismet has blocked over 24 billion Spam Comments.
When all is said and done, you need to keep your WordPress site from being taken over by spammers and without spam protection, it is pretty easy for your site to become a spammer heaven. This is why you need to go back into your site, activate the plugin and then go over to Akismet.com and grab your API key to configure the plugin to keep your site protected from spam.
