Preventing WordPress comment spam

Enabling comments on your WordPress site is great for interacting with your users and customers, as well as building a community. However, it can make your site a target for SPAM if proper preventative measures are not taken. In light cases, comment SPAM may just be annoying for your users. In extreme cases, it could impact the performance or even search engine ranking of your site.

To help prevent comment spam yourself, use the table below to find the scenario that's applicable and follow those instructions.

Modify Discussion Settings

To do it yourself, see	Difficulty
Change comment approval settings in WordPress	Basic
Change the number of links allowed in a WordPress comment	Basic
Change which comments require moderation in WordPress	Basic
Change who can comment in WordPress	Basic
Disable comments on old posts in WordPress	Basic
Disable comments in WordPress	Basic
Disable trackbacks and pingbacks in WordPress	Basic
Setup a comment blacklist in WordPress	Basic

Reduce SPAM for a single post or page

To do it yourself, see	Difficulty
Disable comments for a single WordPress post	Basic
Disable WordPress trackbacks and pingbacks for a single post	Basic

Install SPAM prevention plugins

To do it yourself, see	Difficulty
Install a comment SPAM prevention plugin in WordPress	Basic
Install a CAPTCHA plugin in WordPress	Basic

Remove comments

To do it yourself, see	Difficulty
Remove WordPress comments	Basic
Remove WordPress comments within the database	Medium

Disable external comment requests

To do it yourself, see	Difficulty
Disable external WordPress comment requests	Medium