If you have a successful WordPress website, you are most likely seeing a lot of traffic. And if you have multiples of successful WordPress websites that get very high traffic then you probably receive daily spam messages on each website in your network.
If your comments section is somehow bombarded with unwanted spam messages that point to banned or illegal websites, there is every possibility that your visitors and members consider your website akin to a malware or a spyware and stop visiting your site. Eventually, you lose your visitor count and also lose your website potential.
Most of these comments are submitted by spam bots that hunt for comment forms on websites and spam them with illegal references. If you restrict spam bot access, you can reduce WordPress comment spam.
The Cookies for Comments Plugin
An easy way to wrestle the comment spam issue on WordPress is to install the Cookies for Comments plugin. Download this from the official WordPress site and activate the plugin.
How does it work?
The primary function of a spam bot is to spam many websites in the least possible amount of time. Hence they do not download cookies. Once you activate the Cookies for Comments plugin, it loads images or style sheets on your WordPress site. If a visitor’s browser downloads these images as cookies and the plugin detects a cookie when the visitor tries to post a comment, then the visitor is considered legitimate. If the plugin does not detect any cookie when the visitor tries to post a comment, it considers the visitor a spam bot.
The Con and the Ultimate Solution
The Cookies for Comments plugin only detects comment spam and does not stop the spam bot from commenting.
In order to stop all spam bot access to your website, you have to change the cookie value in the .htaccess file.
How to change the cookie value in .htaccess file
- To get the cookie value, right-click on your website and click View Page Source.
- In the HTML code that is displayed, search for the <img alt …/> tag. The code should be like this:
![]()
85yeh867345dede27982623435ef96865aaj00...height = '3' />
The cookie value is the value of k. Keep this aside.
- Use an FTP client like File Zilla and trace the .htaccess file in the root directory of your WordPress site. Since this is a hidden file, do not forget to enable the Show Hidden Files option.
- Paste the following code at the very start of the .htaccess file:
RewriteCond %{HTTP COOKIE} !^.*YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.*$
RewriteRule ^wp-comments-post.php – [F, L]
- Replace the Y's with the cookie value and you are done.
In Conclusion
Though Cookies for Comments is an effective plugin, there are equally good and better plugins like Akismet, WP-reCAPTCHA, and WP Spam Fighter. Switch between the various plugins and use the one that you find to be the most successful in reducing comment spam.
How to Reduce WordPress Comment Spam
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If you have a successful WordPress website, you are most likely seeing a lot of traffic. And if you have multiples of successful WordPress websites that get very high traffic then you probably receive daily spam messages on each website in your network.
If your comments section is somehow bombarded with unwanted spam messages that point to banned or illegal websites, there is every possibility that your visitors and members consider your website akin to a malware or a spyware and stop visiting your site. Eventually, you lose your visitor count and also lose your website potential.
Most of these comments are submitted by spam bots that hunt for comment forms on websites and spam them with illegal references. If you restrict spam bot access, you can reduce WordPress comment spam.
The Cookies for Comments Plugin
An easy way to wrestle the comment spam issue on WordPress is to install the Cookies for Comments plugin. Download this from the official WordPress site and activate the plugin.
How does it work?
The primary function of a spam bot is to spam many websites in the least possible amount of time. Hence they do not download cookies. Once you activate the Cookies for Comments plugin, it loads images or style sheets on your WordPress site. If a visitor’s browser downloads these images as cookies and the plugin detects a cookie when the visitor tries to post a comment, then the visitor is considered legitimate. If the plugin does not detect any cookie when the visitor tries to post a comment, it considers the visitor a spam bot.
The Con and the Ultimate Solution
The Cookies for Comments plugin only detects comment spam and does not stop the spam bot from commenting.
In order to stop all spam bot access to your website, you have to change the cookie value in the .htaccess file.
How to change the cookie value in .htaccess file
RewriteCond %{HTTP COOKIE} !^.*YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.*$ RewriteRule ^wp-comments-post.php – [F, L]In Conclusion
Though Cookies for Comments is an effective plugin, there are equally good and better plugins like Akismet, WP-reCAPTCHA, and WP Spam Fighter. Switch between the various plugins and use the one that you find to be the most successful in reducing comment spam.
Share this post:
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