Stop Comment Spam – Immediately

If you run a blog then you most likely have seen your fair share of comment spam. Many new bloggers learn quickly that they have to moderate their comments to avoid having endless spam links in their comments section. Not only is comment spam annoying but spam links that make it into your comments section can actually hurt your search engine ranking or potentially cause you to become de-listed. This is because the robots that index your site might find some of your links on their “known spammers” list and thus your blog could be labeled as spam.

I get a good amount of email each month from new bloggers looking to get started and understand the basic principles of blogging. The first thing I tell new bloggers is that they should start with hosted WordPress. WordPress is an incredible blogging platform and has some incredible plugins that make it unbelievably easy to add powerful functionality to any blog. I think of WordPress a bit like I do the iPhone – it’s all about the apps – or the plugins in this case!

The next advice I give new bloggers is to activate the Akismet plugin as soon as they possibly can. The Akismet plugin comes with WordPress so you won’t even have to download and install it. What does it do? This plugin actually eliminates comment spam – immediately! This may sound like a lofty goal but I can tell you that this plugin does what it says. You’ll need to have a WordPress API key which means you will need to have an account with WordPress.com – these accounts are free and takes only a minute to setup so shouldn’t be hindrance.

As many of you know I run five different blogs now (okay, a bit more…but I focus on five!) and without Akismet I would spent more time filtering comments than actually writing posts. I am not being paid to say any of this – it actually makes such a difference that I thought I should let everyone know because that is the main point of this blog – education!

So if you are starting a blog – use hosted WordPress and activate the Akismet Plugin – you’ll be glad you did!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to share your favorite comment-spam plugin? Comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton