Is there a way to minimize spam being sent through your contact form? If you’re using the Contact Form 7 plugin, there sure is. Two ways, in fact — neither of which involve captchas — and they only take a few minutes to implement.
Akismet to the Spam-Fighting Rescue
Akismet is a spam-fighting plugin you most likely know about and have installed already, since it comes bundled with WordPress. But what most people don’t know is you can add a snippet or two of code that checks the sender of an email’s name and email address against the Akismet database, to weed out false submissions.
Speaking of Databases…
Ever heard of Project Honeypot? It’s a database of spam-sending sites, emails, IP’s, and more that website owners have been contributing to for years. And thanks to a plugin called Contact Form 7 Honeypot, you can test the sender of a contact form submission through PH’s database as well.
These two plugins, when used together, have cut down the amount of contact form spam that I (and a number of clients like you) have received from sometimes 100 a day down to one, or even zero. Pretty cool, huh?
So, enjoy – and if you need help getting these plugins installed and configured into your Contact Form 7 forms, just let me know, and I’d be happy to help.
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