If you have a site that is open to user registration, you may encounter a problem sooner or later. What is that? Spam !!! Spam is always a big problem for WordPress. Here is an example:
There are various websites or tools through which you can see how many users you currently have on your website. Suppose you are receiving an email as soon as you register a new user on your website as an admin. After receiving the email, you enter the website or tools to see how many users your website currently has. You see, there are no users on your website right now. So where did the new user registration email you received come from?
This is spam! The link to the registration page of your website is always the same. Not just your website, but most website registration pages always have the same link (eg: www.domain.com/login). There are many software through which registration can be done on the website automatically.
How do spam users affect on your site ?
- Unsolicited posts: They may post links to spam sites on your site that become backlinks to their site in search engines.
- Decreasing your website speed: Registering too many spam users can increase the size of your database and affect performance.
- Hacking: Sites can be hacked by spam accounts to find out the weaknesses of your site.
There are two ways to protect your website from spam users:
Stop Spam Registration: You can use the captcha to prevent spammers. Here are four great plugins for WordPress:
Delete spam users who have already registered on your site: If you have not taken preventive measures and your database is now loaded with spam users, the following plug-in may help you to delete this account: