August 11, 2011 / in General Information, Information Technology, Social Media, WordPress / by Jason Terry
If you have a web site that is powered by WordPress, you might be familiar with the concept of Comment Spam. We get calls from people that are getting dozens of spam comments every day on their web site! (Noteworthy is the fact that more than 25 million web sites currently use WordPress to power their content, so this tip could help you or someone you know!) We wanted to let you know that there is an easy way to reduce a majority of spam comments with a great plugin called Akismet. The Akismet service is free for personal blogs and inexpensive for company blog protection. We install this plugin on every site that we do for our clients as a best practice. If you don’t have it running on your WordPress based site, you need to take the time to hook it up. The installation takes just a few minutes!
Comment Spam is the behavior of a hacker or spammer posting a comment to one of your news/blog articles. It is done by automatically posting random comments or promoting commercial services to your blog. Adding links that point to the spammer’s web site artificially increases the site’s search engine ranking. An increased ranking often results in the spammer’s commercial site being listed ahead of other sites for certain searches, increasing the number of potential visitors and paying customers.
Some examples of a spam comment (usually accompanies by links to the spammer’s web site):
– Thank you for the shares in this blog. I will visit it again. (from DualShock 3 Wireless Controller)
– I identified a really great internet site for you folks. (from Morocco Currency)
– I am finally in the United States but need your help to get my money out of Saudi Arabia (from Prince Akheem)
Don’t just ignore comments in your WordPress site… you are allowing the spammer to accomplish their goals! Use Akismet to help with the problem. Akismet isn’t the total solution, but it is a step in the right direction for fighting comments spam on your site.
Let us know if you use Akismet or have another suggestion for combating spam on your WordPress site!
Jason gets his clients and understands how they think - and they love him!
I've had the privilege to work with Jason Terry of Blue Gurus on numerous projects, giving me the opportunity to watch him work masterfully with his clients. As an expert on blogging, LinkedIn training, business storytelling and website construction, he stands alone as the premiere resource.
Jason gets his clients and understands how they think - and they love him! He makes it easy to work with him, going over into the technical arena and bringing back information to his clients in a simple and direct way they can understand -- and somehow makes it fun while doing it. I recommend Jason (and often do!) to anyone who wants to increase or improve their online presence through market-proven content and strategy.
Jeff Potts
Owner of 20/20 Creative, Inc.
