When setting up our blogs there is one thing we’re always told to do, and that’s to set up the Akismet plugin, but have you ever wondered just what it does?
True, it can seem like a total hassle to get up and running – though the only time consuming bit is getting the API Key through WordPress – but it will save you a whole lot of time in the future.
Akismet helps to block out all of those nasty little spammy comments that can appear on your site from people who just send them out there in the hopes of getting a few links back to the product they’re advertising. Sometimes it even works out for them. Seeing it takes them little to no time or money to do – and they’re obviously making enough money for it to be worth doing – so they’re just going to keep on doing it, but, it could take you a fair bit of time to get rid of it.
I recently checked the stats on my blog and was surprised to see that Akismet had stopped 6,084 spam comments dead in their tracks. I decided to take a look at the comments that were still in the spam queue, and wasn’t too surprised to see what sort of links they had in them.
The one thing that did make me laugh (I have a slightly warped sense of humour) was the fact that I had more links for mobile phone ring tones than I could possibly listen to in a lifetime, especially seeing I never have, and possibly never will, own a mobile phone.
The whole point of this post is this: you may not know what Akismet is, or how it works, just know that it’s in your best interest to have it up and running.
