Spam is always a nuisance so what can you do to reduce it?
If you are a business and your blog is used for sharing news but you don’t have interaction with your readers you can condition your blog so that comments, trackbacks and pingbacks are switched off. This isn’t ideal though as it defeats one of the main benefits of your blog. Networking with your clients and potential clients.
You could alter the settings below by un-checking allow trackbacks and pingbacks. Closing comments after a select number of days will also help. In the dashboard go to SETTINGS –> DISCUSSION…
If you use the Genesis Theme you can also go to GENESIS –> THEME SETTINGS –> Uncheck enable trackbacks and comments. (Added 31st July 2015)
There are many plugins that help reduce spam. Here are two of our favourites.
Spam free WordPress
This is a premium plugin (you have to pay) with some great protection. It protects Gravity Forms and Woocommerce forms as well as WordPress comments. You also get the added Hackbot protection for the login form.
Read more about Spam Free WordPress here.
Aksimet
The best solution for dealing with spam is a useful plugin that comes already bundled with WordPress – Akismet. This is the plugin that all other plugins compare themselves to. It is free to non-commercial bloggers and carries a small monthly fee of $5.00 for businesses.
There are lots of other plugins and solutions available from WordPress.