How to protect WordPress from Spam?

In this tutorial we will show you how to protect your WordPress blog from spam. 

WordPress comes with a preinstalled antispam solution - Akismet.  

In order to use Akismet, you should have a WordPress API key. To receive a WordPress API key, you should register at the official WordPress website. The key will be included in your welcome mail. 

If you already have a registration at WordPress.org, you can see your API key by visiting the WP dashboard. 

To enable Akismet for your blog, follow the steps below: 

Step 1. Go to your WordPress admin area > Plugins > Installed.

Step 2. Click Activate.

The Akismet plugin will be activated.

Step 3. Click "enter your WordPress.com API key" (you can also click Akismet Configuration in the Plugins section)

Step 4. Enter your WordPress API key.

Step 5. Click Update options>>.

Step 6. If you have entered a correct API key, it will be verified.

From now on your blog will be protected from spam by Akismet. You will be able to check the comments in your blog for spam, as well as manually mark comments as spam from the blog admin area > Comments.

You can also display on your blog's front page how many spam posts have been stopped by Akismet. To show this information, you should add the Akismet widget to your sidebar. More information how to do this can be found in our article on how to add a widget to the WordPress sidebar.