Block Repeat Spam Offenders From Your WordPress Blog

By Doug | Published: July 3, 2010

Some excellent WordPress security tweaks can be found at this article on Smashing Magazine, including ways to protect your wp-config file and prevent hot-linking to images on your site. My personal favorite is this snippet of code entered into your .htaccess file to ban persistent spam bots from your blog:

Paste the following code in your .htaccess file, located at the root of your WordPress installation. As I said, always back up the .htaccess file before editing it. Also, don’t forget to change 123.456.789 to the IP address you want to ban.

<Limit GET POST PUT>
order allow,deny
allow from all
deny from 123.456.789
</LIMIT>

There’s almost nothing more annoying than having to clear out the same spam comments from the same IP address every day. Repeat line 4 on a new line with another address and you can ban as many spam-happy bots as you like.

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Make WordPress Take Out The Trash

By Doug | Published: May 20, 2010

A simple and very useful trick by way of WP Recipes that tells WordPress to automatically empty the trash:

Simply open your wp-config.php file (located at the root of your WOrdPress install) and paste the following code:

define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 10 );

The second parameter is when to empty trash, in days.

If you’re like me, you’re constantly forgetting to permanently delete trashed posts, comments and pages. This fix will not only take care of a piece of routine blog maintenance you’re likely to forget, it should help your site run faster.

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Starting A WordPress Blog: Your First Plugins

By Doug | Published: May 18, 2010

Plugins are a big part of what makes WordPress so versatile. There are thousands of free plugins available for WordPress that add an incredible amount of functionality to your website. But sometimes people get ahead of themselves and try to install all these “must have” plugins they’ve been told every blog needs before they even write one post. Suddenly, instead of blogging, they’re playing around with settings and functions they have no use for.

When starting a WordPress blog, I suggest keeping the amount of plugins to minimum. Every time your website is loaded, your server has to load all those plugins and having too many can slow your site down. It’s also easier to add plugins as your need for them arises; this way you can learn to manage each plugin as it’s installed instead of learning multiple plugins at the same time. This is not to say you shouldn’t have any plugins, otherwise you wouldn’t be making use of WordPress’s capabilities. Here are a few plugins that I feel are worth having once you start your blog (even if you haven’t written one post):

  • Askimet – Included with WordPress, this is as good a spam blocker as you’re likely to find. You can read about setting Askimet up here.
  • All In One SEO Pack- Easy-to-use search engine optimization plugin that allows you to insert keywords into your homepage and every post. Once installed, access it’s options under the ‘Settings’ tab and enter all the applicable keywords for your site in the ‘Home Keywords’ field. Whenever you write a new post, enter that post’s keywords in the SEO fields at the very bottom of the ‘Edit Post’ page.
  • Google  Analytics For WordPress – Google Analytics is a free, powerful way to track and analyze your website traffic. This plugin makes it easy to install the necessary tracking code in your site without your having to edit your site’s HTML files. Accessible from the ‘Settings’ tab, you simply enter your Analytics ID in the appropriate field.
  • Google XML Sitemaps – This will automatically generate an XML sitemap for your site which helps search engines like Google and Yahoo index and search your content. It also notifies search engines whenever you update your site. In addition, you can submit this sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools which helps you manage your site’s search engine results. It can be configured from the ‘Settings’ tab, though you’re probably best leaving it at its default settings.
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Starting A WordPress Blog: Permalinks, Askimet And User Name

By Doug | Published: May 17, 2010

One of the great things about WordPress is that it works right out of the box. As soon as you finish the basic installation you’re able to start blogging and publishing your content to the web without configuring your setup. If you want a blog with greater stability and search engine optimization, however, here are a few steps to take before you begin blogging.

  • Change Your Permalinks Structure – Located under the ‘Settings’ tab, Permalinks defines how your blog posts URL will look. The default setting simply lists your posts by number which is unattractive to both readers and search engines. Change your Permalinks to include the post name – either the ‘Day and Name’ option or ‘Month and Name’ option. You can even create a custom Permalink structure that displays only the post name by inserting ‘/%postname%/‘ into the ‘Custom’ option. This will make it much easier for search engines to find your content based on your post title.
  • Activate The Askimet Plugin – The Askimet plugin comes bundled with WordPress and effectively gets rid of comment spam. You’ll first need to activate it within the ‘Plugins’ tab. Then you can set it up by clicking ‘Askimet Configuration,’ also under the ‘Plugins’ tab. You’ll need to enter your Wordpress.com API Key, which you get by singing up for a free account on Wordpress.com.
  • Set Your Display Name – Within the ‘Users’ tab is the option to edit your profile. Here, you’ll want to ensure that all your contact info is correct. You’ll then want to make sure WordPress is displaying your name instead of “Admin” on the posts you publish. The pulldown menu labeled ‘Display Name Publicly As’ will allow you to change your display name to either your nickname, first or last name.
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