In this article we’ll explain a common problem that you find in many CMS applications, and forum software. By default these type of applications typically give visitors the ability to comment on your posts, or add to your forum discussions without registering for an account. Or in some cases they will require an account, but no manual verification to prove that visitor is a human.
This can lead to spam bots attempting to use your site to boost their own search engine rankings, by leaving comments on your site linking back to their site. This might not seem like a huge deal, but it can have multiple negative effects if left unattended.
First, your own site’s search engine rankings could be negatively affected if you have a large amount of spam content on your site. Additionally there could be a large amount of resources wasted on the server to be able to parse all of those spam comments out of your database again and again.
| Install CAPTCHA | Deter spam bots from registering accounts on your site by implementing a CAPTCHA system which stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. |
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| Moderate accounts | User registrations for your forum or CMS should be reviewed from time to time to ensure they aren’t being used for spam purposes. |
| Clean-up spam | Purge spam content from your database periodically. This can be done either directly through your application, or if the spam is more extensive sometimes directly removing the spam from your database using phpMyAdmin is a better option. Application level clean-up
Direct database clean-up with phpMyAdmin |
