Why Akismet is Still the Best Spam Comment Fighter for WordPress Blog

I presumed you must have seen Akismet plugin at the top of your installed plugins. It always comes with every WordPress CMS installed website. But, what it does and how it fights spam comment may be obscure to you.

Well, Akismet is not just another tool on WordPress because of its usefulness and where it originated from. Its development stem from the need to block comment spam and trackbacks that have become a major threat to WordPress users and that includes you.

Why should you spend hours moderating pending comments just because more than 90% of them could be spam? Again, you can’t afford to grant blanket approval to posted comments. Doing so will jettison the credibility and authority you’re trying to build around your business.

If this problem had not been controlled, it would have posed eminent danger to WordPress as a brand. However, Akismet came in handy to salvage the situation.

What is Akismet?

It is a plugin that controls and manages spam comments on WordPress sites. It was specifically developed for WordPress community by the co-founder of WordPress- Matt Mullenweg under the company called Automatic.

This plugin couldn’t have been developed by any other person than Matt who knows the intricacies of the platform. The passion he has for WordPress underlay the effectiveness of this plugin.

How does it work?

It works by simply learning from its mistakes. How do I mean? When someone submits comment that was marked as spam somewhere, Akismet will learn to understand it has spam and would treat it as such whenever it come across it even if it has passed it as legitimate comment before.

It has been argued logically that this plugin might unknowingly process legitimate comment as spam base on the way it works. Some says it raises false alarm going by the magnitude of spam stats it records. But the real fact is that it uses diverse parameters within the nerves and fabrics of WordPress framework to ascertain spam.

That is why it is capturing and trapping 7.5 million spam comments per hour and still counting. This is far more than any known plugin within the same niche could ever have captured. Akismet continues to improve and evolve as it learns day by day and it tried not to repeat previous mistakes.

However, no man is perfect, but we improve significantly when we try our best to avoid previous mistakes from repeating themselves. Upon this truth do I adjudged Akismet as the best known plugin on WP that fights spam comments.

One thing I know you Can do to make it extremely difficult for both bots and humans to spam your site is to combine two different spam fighting tools like Akismet and Honeypot technique.

Are you set to try out Akismet on your website? If so, let me walk you through the process of installation.

How to install Akismet on your blog

Before we start, I’d like you to get this now. Akismet has both free and paid versions. They both require API key to function. This API key is generated on their website and you need a WordPress dot com account to access it even though your site is built on WordPress dot org.

If you want the best service from Akismet, go for the premium version. But if your site does not generate much comment or spam probably the traffic is still low, you may opt for the free version. In all, the choice is always yours. Now, let’s start the installation process.

Akismet is pre-installed along with WP CMS on your site. So, you’ll see it on installed plugin page when you hover on ‘Plugins’ on admin dashboard and click on ‘Installed plugin’.

Click on “Activate” under Akismet to get it set to work on your website. After activation, it would request that you input your API secret key in a box provided for it.

To get this API key, you’ll have to either visit Akismet website through your browser or click on ‘Get your API’ button. When you’re on the website, click on the ‘Say Goodbye to Comment Spam’ button. You’ll be directed to the available plans. If you want to get the free package where you won’t have to pay a dime, choose the ‘Basic’ or ‘Personal plan’ and click on ‘sign up’ link on it.

Fill the form appropriately if you don’t have a WordPress dot com account before. The form would actually generate a WordPress.com site for you because you need it to make Askimet work on WordPress dot org site. This is so because Askimet is owned by Automatic- The parent company that owns both WordPress dot com and WordPress dot org.If you have a WordPress.com account, then you may click on “I already have a WordPress.com account” to proceed with sign in process.You’ll see a slider on the left side of the new page that emerges. If you do not want to pay to get Akismet operational on your site, then you’ll have to drag the slider to zero and the “continue” link will move up to where you can click without any obstruction for payment.Your API key would be generated and it will pop up as soon as you click the continue button.

Copy it and head on to your WP admin dashboard. Mouse-over ‘Setting’ and click on Akismet. Insert the API key copied into the box specified. Click on “Use this key” and that’s all you need to engage Akismet to fight spam comments on your site continually.

Watch the video below for the visual version of how to install and configure Akismet on your website.

Conclusion: You can see how easy to install Akismet on your website. Apart from this, it really help you combat unwanted comments that may put-off your blog readers that desire to also read comments and opinions of other people.

The earlier you start engaging the services of Akismet on your site the better for your time management in terms of site maintenance. What do you think?