Combating spam is a never ending battle in the online space. This applies to WordPress websites also as spam comments have been a persistent nuisance to website owners too. These unwanted comments flood the comments section with promotional or irrelevant content often with promotional & spammy links.
Many website owners do not know or struggle to contain these spam comments & often resort to different techniques to stop these comments to show on their pages.
Thankfully, there is a simple solution out there in the WordPress repository in the form of Akismet Plugin which will help combat spam comments and maintain a clean & engaging comments section for your visitors.
In this blog we will discuss the Akismet Plugin, how you can install it, its features, benefits & pricing.
Fun Fact
Anti-spam comment tools employ complex algorithms to analyze and identify spam. These algorithms continuously evolve and adapt to new spamming techniques, ensuring robust spam detection
What is Akismet
Akismet was launched in 2005 by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, with the primary purpose of combating spam on websites, particularly on WordPress platforms.
Every WordPress website comes with Akismet plugin pre-installed but its not activated by default and many users who do not know what Akismet is, either do not activate it or delete it.
Akismet uses sophisticated algorithms to automatically detect and filter spam comments, trackbacks and contact form submissions thereby keeping the websites spam-free and saving hours of manual time and effort in otherwise moderating by website owners.
So, when a comment is marked as spam, it will not show as “Moderation” like you usually see with other comments. Instead, it will automatically move them to the spam folder. Wow, what a relief that is!
Features
- Automatic Spam Detection: Akismet plugin seamlessly detects and filters spam comments, keeping your pages clean and saving you hours of manual work
- Spam Reporting: Akismet shares its spam data by contributing to a vast network of users, enabling better spam protection & prevention
- Real-Time Monitoring: Akismet continuously monitors your website’s incoming comments & submissions in real-time, providing instant protection against spam
- Status History: Akismet maintains an archive & history of all spam comments making it easy to review & manage potential spam
- Integration: Akismet seamlessly integrates with popular contact form plugins offering protection against spam comments
- Customizable Settings: To ensure that legitimate comments are not mistakenly flagged, Akismet provides customizable settings which allows you to adjust & set spam detection sensitivity & define how it handles potential spam comments & malicious links
How to install Akismet
The first thing you need to do is either install & activate Akismet plugin on your WordPress website
A new tab or window will open in your browser and you will see the Akismet pricing page – the plugin offers both Free & premium pricing plans.
If your website is for non-commercial purposes, you can choose the personal plan. Else, select one of the premium pricing plans.
For this blog, I’ll go with the Personal plan.
You will then need to enter your personal details like Name, Email, website URL to create an account.
By default, the price will be set to $36/- per year. You need to move the slider all the way to the left to make it 0.
Once that’s done, click on “Continue with Personal Subscription” button.
Next you’ll need to enter the confirmation code that you’ll receive on your registered email.
Akismet will verify the code and and display a page with additional instructions to complete the signup process.
To complete the setup, head back to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Settings.
Now go ahead and click gthe “Manually enter an API Key” button. The API key will be sent to your email which you can add and complete the registration process.
What’s Next?
Once the API key is connected, Akismet will automatically start protecting your website from Spam comments.
You can view the statistics from the Akismet dashboard which you will find in the Settings tab. You can also choose to display a privacy notice under your comments form or how the number of approved comments beside each comment authors. Explore the Akismet dashboard to learn what you can do.
Here are some of the Pros & Cons of Akismet
Pros
- Best WordPress Plugin for anti-spam comments
- Easy to activate & implement
- Free to use
- Time saving
- Reduced SEO risks
Cons
- Potential false positives
- Reliance on Internet connection
- Compatibility on WordPress
Here’s a quick glance of the pricing plans:
- Pro Plan for $4.95 per month is the starting premium plan which can be used for professional or commercial sites & blogs & it provides spam protection, 10k API calls/month & product support
- Business Plan for $24.95 per moth is recommended for Buletproof spam protection for large networks or multisite installations & it provides spam protectionm 60k API calls/month, extends to unlimited sites & provides priority support
- Enterprise Plan is for large businesses and it provides spam protection, custom API limit, extends to unlimited websites & provides dedicated support. For pricing, you’d need to contact Akismet’s sales team
Sign up for any of the Premium plans here
Fun Fact
Akismet is trusted by numerous high-traffic and prominent websites, including major news outlets, e-commerce platforms, & popular blogs
Conclusion
Akismet offers a comprehensive anti-spam solution to WordPress websites which saves you time & efforts. It also improves User Experience & reduces SEO risk.
The fact that its is developed by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress makes it an automatic choice as it ensures compatibility & seamless integration with the WordPress platform.
Sign up for Akismet here
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Frequently Asked Questions
An Anti-Spam plugin is a tool designed to filter & prevent spam content, such as Spam comments, trackbacks, & form submissions to appear on your comments section on a page
Spam can overwhelm comments section making it looks ugly and negative, compromise website security, and degrade the user experience.
An anti-spam plugin like Akismet will help in automatically detecting spammy comments and block them permanently, saving you time and ensuring a spam-free environment
Akismet works by analyzing comments against its extensive spam database. It uses Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence to determine the likelihood of a comment being a spam and then flags it (if found)
Akismet follows a Freemium model where it provides both free account and 3 paid pricing plans.
The premium plans offer additional features & priority support for pressing needs.
Check out the pricing plans here
Akismet is designed to be compatible with other anti-spam plugins. But its recommended to use only 1 plugin to avoid conflicts. Using multiple anti-spam plugins might lead to redundancy & performance related issues
Akismet is primarily developed for WordPress websites.
However other CMS platforms also offer integrations that utilizes the Akismet service to fight spam
While Akismet is highly effective in blocking spam, no solution/plugin can provide 100% guarantee.
Akismet continuously improves its spam detection algorithms but there will always be cases when some advanced spam techniques may occasionally bypass its filters & defenses
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