Reduce spam with a few built-in and plugin settings.
- In Settings > Discussion, require comments to be manually approved, hold comments with links, and disable comments on old posts.
- Install Akismet Anti-Spam (bundled with WordPress) and activate it with a free API key.
- Add an anti-spam plugin like Antispam Bee or a CAPTCHA plugin to block bots.
You can also disable comments entirely on pages you do not need them. For extra protection, enabling Cloudflare or cPanel's ModSecurity helps filter automated traffic before it reaches WordPress. Keep spam and trash emptied regularly so your database stays clean. These steps together stop the vast majority of comment spam.
