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How to Manage Comments and Spam in WordPress

Comments can build a community around your blog, or turn into a pile of spam. Here's how to manage them, cut down on junk, or turn them off. These steps are for WordPress 6.x and later.

Moderate comments

  1. Log in at yoursite.com/wp-admin.
  2. Go to Comments.
  3. Use the links at the top to filter: Pending, Approved, Spam, and Trash.
  4. Hover over a comment to Approve, Unapprove, Reply, Edit, mark as Spam, or move to Trash.
  5. To handle lots at once, tick the boxes, choose from Bulk actions, and click Apply.

Marking spam as Spam (instead of just deleting it) helps anti-spam plugins learn.

Set your comment rules

Go to Settings > Discussion. The screen is split into sections like Default post settings, Other comment settings, Before a comment appears, and Comment Moderation. Useful settings include:

  • Allow people to submit comments on new posts: turn this off to stop comments on new posts.
  • Comment must be manually approved: nothing shows up until you approve it.
  • Comment author must have a previously approved comment: first-timers wait for approval, regulars go straight through.
  • Automatically close comments on posts older than a number of days. Old posts attract a lot of spam.
  • Number of links to allow in a comment before holding for moderation (under Comment Moderation). Spam often has lots of links, so a low number like 1 or 2 helps.
  • The word box under Comment Moderation: comments that contain any word, URL, email, or IP address you list here are held in the moderation queue.
  • Disallowed Comment Keys: comments that match anything you list here go straight to Trash.

Click Save Changes at the bottom.

Cut down on spam

  • Use an anti-spam plugin. Akismet is a well-known one, and many others exist. Some form and security plugins include comment spam protection too.
  • Close comments on old posts (see above).
  • Require approval for first-time commenters.
  • Don't approve comments that are vague praise with a link. That's a classic spam pattern.

Turn off comments on one post or page

  1. Edit the post or page.
  2. In the sidebar, find Discussion (in some versions it's under the post's status and settings).
  3. Turn off Allow comments.
  4. Click Save or Update.

Using the Classic Editor? Look for the Discussion box below the content and untick Allow comments (and Allow trackbacks and pingbacks if you want). If you don't see the box, turn it on under Screen Options at the top of the screen.

Turn off comments everywhere

  1. In Settings > Discussion, turn off Allow people to submit comments on new posts. This only affects new posts.
  2. For existing posts, go to Posts, tick all, choose Edit from Bulk actions, set Comments to Do not allow, and click Update. Do the same for Pages if needed.
  3. Delete or keep old comments. They stay visible unless you remove them or your theme hides them.

Some people use a plugin to turn comments off site-wide in one step. Either way works.

Comments and privacy

Comments store names, emails, and IP addresses. Mention comments in your privacy policy. WordPress can show a cookie consent checkbox on the comment form under Settings > Discussion.

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