Each new installation of WordPress is provided with two default plugins. Akismet is one of them and it is included for some good reasons. Akismet is an excellent tool for preventing spam comments in your website. In today’s article, I will show you how use the Akismet WordPress plugin to reduce comment spam in your WordPress site.
In the video below I walk you through how to create a contact form using the Contact Form 7 plugin. If you’d rather read, then a text version of the tutorial is below the video.
Activating Akismet
While Akismet is installed automatically, it is not activated by default. In order to use the plugin, you need to activate it first. To do that, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins from your website dashboard. Find Akismet and click the ‘Activate’ link.
Activating Akismet will provide you with a notice like the following:
Click on the ‘Activate your Akismet account’ button and you will be taken to this page –
Getting Akismet API
Click the ‘Get your API key’ link. This will take you to the Akismet website. On that page, you will find a link to get an Akismet API key of your own.
In the next page, you will have to sign in with your WordPress.com account. If you don’t have a WordPress.com account, you can create one from that page. Once you have signed in, you will be forwarded to the pricing page. Akismet offers several pricing plans. As you are still a beginner, you should stick with the free plan for now. You can upgrade your account anytime later.
After choosing the free plan, click ‘Continue’. You will find your API key on the next page. It will also be sent as an email to you. Now that you have got your API key, get back to your website dashboard. Go to Settings > Akismet. Paste the API key and click ‘Use this key’.
If everything is okay, you will be provided with a success message like the following in the next screen.
Customizing Akismet
You will have some customization options in the Settings > Akismet page. First of all, you can show the number of comment author’s by checking the ‘Comments’ box. Then, you can choose to automatically delete the spam comments. By default, spam comments will be marked as spam and deleted after 15 days. After making the necessary changes, click ‘Save Changes’ and you are done. From now on, Akismet will protect you from spam messages.
Using the Akismet Widget
I bet most of you didn’t know that Akismet installs a custom widget too. You will find the widget in the Appearance > Widgets page. The widget will show the total number of spams Akismet has blocked so far in your website. To use the widget, drag and drop it to your desired location, provide a title and click ‘Save’.
I hope this article helped you in learning how to set up Akismet in your website and how to get the API key. However, you should know that Akismet is not the only option when it comes to preventing spam comments. When your site grows, you will need more tools other than relying on Akismet only. For now, you can count on Akismet to prevent spam comments for you.