Comment Spam: What 3 Million Blocked Comments Taught Us (2026)

How bad is comment spam on a real blog? In April 2012 we looked at our own Akismet statistics and were stunned: over the years, Akismet had blocked around 3 million spam comments on QuickOnlineTips. This case study shares those numbers, what they taught us, and how we would handle comment spam today.

Quick answer: Comment spam is automated junk posted by bots, mostly to plant links. On our blog, spam outnumbered real comments by more than 100 to 1 (about 3 million blocked versus 27,000 approved by 2012). Stop it with a spam filter such as Akismet or Antispam Bee, add an invisible honeypot or CAPTCHA, close comments on old posts, and hold link-heavy comments for moderation.

Our comment spam stats

Akismet started blocking spam on our site in 2006, when we moved from Blogger to WordPress. Here is what the chart showed by 2012:

• About 3 million spam comments blocked in total.
• Around 1 million of those arrived in a single year (2011).
• Only about 27,000 comments were approved and live on the site.
• Akismet’s accuracy on our site was 99.88%.
• Oddly, spam was lowest in 2009, then climbed every year after.

Back in 2008 we had already celebrated Akismet blocking 1 million spam comments; the total tripled within four years.

What 3 million spam comments taught us

1. A spam filter is not optional

Without automatic filtering, moderating more than 100 spam comments for every real one would have consumed our entire day. We once even imagined a WordPress blog without Akismet for a day; it is not a pretty picture.

2. Spam can overload your server

In 2011 spam bots hit us so hard that we temporarily turned off comments on older posts to protect the server. Blocking bots before they submit, rather than filtering afterwards, saves resources.

3. Layered defenses work best

At the time, adding the GASP (Growmap Anti Spambot) plugin alongside Akismet brought spam under control and made moderation much lighter. GASP has since been closed on WordPress.org (in 2019), but the lesson holds: combine a content filter with a bot blocker.

4. Old posts attract the most spam

Spam bots love old, well-ranked posts. Closing comments after a set period removes a big chunk of spam with zero effort.

How to stop comment spam in 2026

• Use a spam filter: Akismet (external site) (from the makers of WordPress) or the free, privacy-friendly Antispam Bee (external site).
• Add a bot blocker: an invisible honeypot like WP Armour (external site), or a low-friction CAPTCHA such as Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile (external site).
• Tune Settings > Discussion: close comments on older posts, hold comments with two or more links, and require a previously approved comment.
• Remove the incentive: keep comment links nofollow (the WordPress default) or remove the website field.

For detailed comparisons, see our guide to the best WordPress plugins to stop comment spam, learn how to stop Akismet auto-deleting comments, and see how to ban spammer IP addresses.

FAQ

What is comment spam?

Unwanted comments, usually posted automatically by bots, that promote links, products or scams rather than adding to the discussion.

Why do spammers post comments on blogs?

Mostly to get links for SEO or to drive clicks to scam and affiliate sites. Even nofollow links attract bots because spamming costs them almost nothing.

Does comment spam hurt SEO?

Published spam with spammy links can damage your site’s quality and trust. Filtering it out and keeping comment links nofollow protects you.

How accurate is Akismet?

On our site it was 99.88% accurate in 2012. Check the spam folder occasionally for genuine comments caught by mistake.

How much comment spam does your blog get? Share your numbers in the comments.