Akismet is a plugin that comes pre-installed on every WordPress installation, but it is not turned on by default. People often ask us what Akismet is and do you really need it turned on on your WordPress? In this post, we will answer this question and explain why you should use Akismet as soon as possible.
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What is Akismet?
Akismet (WordPress Spam Filter) is a WordPress comment spam filter service. It is developed by Automattic, a company co-founded by the co-founder of WordPress.
The Akismet algorithm analyzes blog comments and then filters out spam based on its algorithms. It learns from its errors and the actions of other websites. For instance, if a lot of websites start reporting content that looks similar to spam, then the Akismet algorithm learns to identify that type of content in the future as spam.
To date, the Akismet spam filter has captured over 523,000,000 spam comments and the number continues to increase.
Why You Should Use Akismet?
Spam comments can reach up to 85% on popular WordPress websites. That means only 15 out of 100 comments are legit.
Comment moderation is also a tedious task. You’d have to spend hours and hours manually filtering spam comments.
Akismet saves you hours. It’s a WordPress plugin that automatically catches spam comments before they reach your moderation queue. That way, you can focus your time on moderating real users’ comments.
Once Akismet tags a comment as spam, you don’t have to worry about it showing up in your Awaiting moderation notice. Instead, Akismet automatically moves the comment into the spam folder.
Now, let’s look at how you can configure Akismet on your website.
How to Set up Akismet in WordPress?
The first step is to install and activate Akismet SPAM Protection plugin for your WordPress site. Check out our guide on installing a WordPress plugin for more information.
Once the plugin is activated, you can go to your WordPress dashboard and click on Settings>Akismet Ant-Spam.
Next, click on Set up Your Akismet Account.
A new tab (or window) will pop up in your browser and you will be presented with the pricing page of Akismet.
Akismet has two pricing plans: Free and Premium.
The Premium plan is available if your site isn’t for commercial purposes (e.g., you don’t have ads running on your site).
The Personal plan is available if you’re running a commercial site.
We’re going to stick with the Personal plan for the purpose of this tutorial.
On the following screen, create an account by entering your email, name and website URL, as well as selecting the price you’d like to pay.
The default price for an account is $36/year, but you can set it to anything from $0 to $120/year.
You’ll also be asked to check the following boxes:
Are you running ads?
Are you selling products and/or services?
Are you promoting a business?
Once you’ve done that, click the Continue with Personal subscription button.
Next, enter your email confirmation code that was sent to you when you signed up. Once you have entered your code, click Continue.
Akismet will check your code and then direct you to a page with more details on how to sign up.
Once you have completed the signup process, you can go back to your site's WordPress dashboard and go to the Akismet Ant-Spam Settings » page.
Click on the 'Manually Enter an API Key' button.
Once you have connected the API key to Akismet, it will begin to protect your website against spam comments. You can also change the settings within Akismet itself. For example, the plugin allows you to display the amount of approved comments next to each comment author. You can also review spam comments, or discard them automatically. You can also display a privacy notice underneath comment forms. Once you have made these changes, click the 'Save Changes' button.
Next, go to Comments in your WordPress dashboard, and click on the Spam tab. If you think that a valid comment has been flagged as spam, you can click on the Not Spam button underneath the comment. You can also delete comments permanently, or click on the Empty Spam button to delete the spam folder.
We hope this article has helped you understand what Akismet is and why you need to get started with it.
