If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog which is quite popular, the most annoying thing is fighting WordPress comment spam on a regular basis. Every time you login to WordPress dashboard, you see a whole lot of spam comments waiting to be deleted. Either you have to delete them manually or let them die in the spam queue.

The latter option is not recommended as it will increase database size and the resource loading time. Hence, you have to find and fight your way to prevent spam comments in WordPress. This article describes some of the proven techniques which can be used to reduce WordPress comment spam.

Before we go any further, let’s understand what exactly is a spam comment.

A spam comment is a comment which is posted automatically in blogs, websites, forums etc by automated bots, scripts or software. Some people use scripts and automated bots to target high traffic websites for posting comments. Typically, a spam comment is full of irrelevant keywords and hyperlinks and does not care about the discussion or article where the comment is posted.

In short, a spam comment is an evil form of shameless self-promotion and trying to get quick links for traffic or SEO. [Read more...]