What is Akismet and Why Should You Start Using it Now?

What is Akismet?

Akismet is an advanced anti-spam filtering service. It is one of the most popular tools for comments' spam protection that is compatible across multiple platforms - WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. This powerful spam blocker is the product of Automattic, a company that also proudly owns WordPress. So, Akismet is a plugin that comes inbuilt with WordPress. Matt Mullenweg, the developer of WordPress, is the brain behind Akismet.

This plugin uses algorithms to analyze comments and pingbacks that are submitted to your site to figure out the clutter and the useful portions of your comment section. Akismet digs in through and catches spam comments and stops them from appearing on your site. However, like almost everything, Akismet is not 100%. There might be few spam comments it missed and thereby you had to deal with it. There are even cases where Akismet has gone a bit over the board and spammed genuine comments as well.

Though it is not perfect, this plugin is one of the best and most popular plugins there is for anti-spam filtering.

What is Spam?

WordPress Comments – It’s harder to catch which ones are real and which ones are fake. Thereby, Akismet comes into power to distinguish between the real and fake ones, so that the users can enjoy going through only the genuine comments while leaving out the fake ones. Those fake comments or the unwanted comments are - SPAM.

Spam has many names - electronic junk, unsolicited content, and unwanted commercial advertising. But it has got one purpose - more business for senders and a headache for receivers.

There can be hardly any internet user today who enjoys getting spammed. According to statistica.com, "As of the most recently reported period, spam messages accounted for 56.87 percent of e-mail traffic worldwide. In 2016, the United States accounted for the majority of unsolicited spam e-mails with 12.08 percent of global spam volume."

Among the many aftermaths of spam, a few are:

• Network and CPU Bandwidth become inefficiently used
• Inbox will get overloaded, so important emails might lose the user's attention due to the flood generated by spam emails
• Time and Productivity is significantly reduced in filtering and removing spam (or even going through them)
• Unnecessary and unwanted spams create irritation and discontent
• Spam can even hurt your SEO efforts eventually

These are only a few. Anyone who is a victim of spam, knows well that spams hit you a lot deeper. Commercial advertising like spam is no one's choice. Yet we all become victims of it at some point or the other.

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Why should you start using Akismet right away?

Is Akismet the only way to block spam comments off your site? Well, not really. There are great options available (both free and premium) that you can use to block spam comments off your site. But honestly, Akismet is one of the best you have got. Why? Here we give you two solid reasons that will explain why you should start using Akismet right away.

1. The most important reason is that Akismet was developed by Matt Mullenweg, who is also the brain behind WordPress. WordPress is the leading CMS globally and one of the most exceptional software created for website development. Concerning the credibility and power of WordPress, we can probably assume that Akismet holds itself much higher in the level of trust than any other anti-spam plugin.
2. Akismet has over 5+million active downloads to date, and according to Akismet's official website, it holds off 7.5 million spams per hour. It is one of the most popular and highly used plugins all over the web. So, Akismet holds more data about spamming tactics and style than possibly any other spam protection plugin. At the same time, Akismet is highly appreciated by WordPress themes developers cause it has an access to an enormous amount of data that can be used to judge whether a comment is spam.

How to set up Akismet in WordPress?

You need not install Akismet of course as it is an inbuilt plugin that comes with WordPress. To setup Akismet in WordPress, first, go to Dashboard>Plugins>Installed Plugins. In the installed plugins section, you will find "Akismet -Anti Spam" sitting there gracefully.

Activate the plugin, after which click on settings for configuration. Now, you will be directed to the page as shown in the screenshot below.

Here you will need to enter your API key. To get your API key, go to Akismet website.

Click on "Say Goodbye to Comment Spam". This will take you to the following page where you will have to choose a plan that will match your needs. You can use Akismet free of cost if you are using it for a personal blog or website. If you want to use Akismet for professional sites or large networks, then you can choose the premium protection.

If you have chosen the plan, go further to registering your WordPress.com account information to create a WordPress account.

Created the account? You will get an email to the email address you have mentioned here. Activate your account using your email address; then you will be directed to the following page. Choose the price of your choice, if you had previously chosen the basic plan, then drag your slider to $0. Choose your payment details and confirm your subscription. Immediately after this, you will receive your API key. Your API key is like your password, so keep it secure and secret. If you ever lose it, you can visit Akismet's website, sign in to your account, after which your API key will be there in a hidden form.

Copy that API key and go to Plugins>Installed Plugins. Click on the "Settings" option of Akismet plugin, then paste the API key in the configuration options. You are all set to use Akismet. Congratulations on having a fantastic spam blocker!

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