Turn off Commenting

Because WordPress began life as a blogging platform it provides a means for visitors to comment on your blogs. If you aren’t blogging, it is a good idea to turn off all commenting options in Settings >> Discussion. I usually turn every option off.

Site Indexing

Every website that is to be found on search engines should be properly indexed. If it isn’t, the search engines assume that you want every possible page indexed and served up in search results. This isn’t best practice because it makes some of the private info on your website public, and this allows bots access to contact information. Make sure that only the pages and posts you want accessible to the public are indexed with search engines.

Plugins

If you are allowing comments on your site, it is worth looking for a spam reducing plugin to try and filter out the unwanted comments. I recommend Akismet spam filter.

Security

If you are receiving a lot of spam from your website, it might be worth checking that your website is secure and doing a Malware scan to check that the site hasn’t been hacked. Go through the steps I have outlined here to secure your website.

Honeypots

Speak to your designer about setting a Honeypot. These are questions on your website forms that humans cannot see but bots will fill out. If they are filled out, the email from the form can be filtered accordingly.

reCaptcha

It is standard to put reCaptcha on all websites now. This is software by Google that uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive challenges to keep malicious software from engaging in abusive activities on your website. Meanwhile, legitimate users will be able to login, make purchases, view pages, or create accounts and fake users will be blocked. I am sure everyone is familiar with the “I am not a robot” check box.