Commenting Service: Stopping Comment Spam

Spam is all over the web and can creep into nearly anything. In the past it was limited to email. However, if you happen to run a website or blog that permits your visitors to leave a comment you have undoubtedly faced the issue of comment spam.

Many people conclude the spammers are attempting to redirect your sites traffic to their site in order to increase search engine rankings and revenue share earnings with page views. Most search engines that rank a site will count how many other sites have linked to it. Not only do they count the number of sites, but the sites quality is also a factor. When spammers leave their comments on your site they are achieving a slightly higher search engine ranking.

The spammers will try and circumvent any type of spam blocking software in place that protects your site or blog. They will attempt to get around the security manually, but the most common forms of spam are achieved by spam bots or spam scripts. Most site owners don’t work on their websites and blogs as their day job. Therefore, fighting spam bots on a regular basis is something of an exception rather than the rule. There are some things you can do to fight spam comments on your site or blog.

Some rules of thumb

If you discover you are a victim of spam comments you may react on a per case basis instead of reviewing your site or blog for the big picture. These are rules of thumb that may help you achieve an overall battle to stop spam comments.

Don’t take spam personally; everyone sees spam comments from time to time whenever you own a site or blog. Use these rules of thumb to stop spam comments.

1) Don’t ban a specific IP address

Don’t bother. It’s not worth the time or effort. Although this may seem like a logical move to make, it doesn’t really combat the problem. Most comment spammers are bouncing requests and spam off of other servers and computers making it difficult to pin point one IP address.

2) Don’t permit HTML

There is rarely a reason to permit HTML or JavaScript. This is usually obvious, but rarely there are sites that use HTML or JavaScript.

If you allow users to include links, such as back links to commenter’s sites, there are a number of ways to code to allow them to use links. You can permit the function without being vulnerable to attack.

3) Use non descriptive form names

Good programming will require the use of non-descriptive form names, but in avoiding spam stay away from names describing a form’s field. Form element names like “comment” make it too easy for a spammer to access your system and spread spam comments.

Stop Spamming at the source

1) Differentiate between spammers and regular users

Differentiate between spammers and a regular user involves requiring your human posters to identify them. Many site or blog owners will use CAPTCHA as part of leaving a comment process. This is the most widely used form of separating spammers from actual users leaving comments.

If you are using a web designer make certain they understand what you require in your fight against stop spam comments so they can code accordingly. If you use a free service, such as WordPress or Blogger, these platforms have several options you can elect when setting up your blog or site to fight spam comments.