Stop WordPress Comments Spam: Add reCAPTCHA to WordPress Comment Form

By: Kwehangana Hamza
How To's
Updated: May 25, 2020

Thinking of stopping comments spam in WordPress, in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to add reCAPTCHA to WordPress to help you reduce spam and abuse on your comments form by 99%!

I’m going to show you how you can do this by adding the Google v2 reCAPTCHA to the comment box on your WordPress website which will appear on all current and future blog posts on your website.

Note: the digits in brackets e.g. (00:02) indicate the minutes of that exact explanation in the video so you can easily jump to that section and follow along.

List Of Contents show

Video: How to Add reCAPTCHA to WordPress Comments

Install the reCAPTCHA Plugin by MailOptin

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New, search for a plugin called No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA, install and activate it (00:55)

After you install and activate your plugin, go to the Settings and click on it (01:04)

Under Display Settings, check the Comment Form option (01:19), then on the Site Key option, click ‘Here’ to get your reCAPTCHA keys.

To Read: How to Add Google Invisible reCAPTCHA in WordPress

This takes you to the Google reCAPTCHA platform on your Gmail account, add the Label for your ReCaptcha, under reCAPTCHA type select v2 and then select the ‘I am not a robot’ checkbox.

Under Domains, add the domain (the website where you’re going to add your reCAPTCHA), accept the terms of service then click the Submit button.

In the next window, copy the Site Key, then go back to your plugin editor, and paste it under Site Key. Do the same for the Secret Key (02:12)

When you’re done click save all changes.

Back on your dashboard go to Posts and open up your blog post, copy its URL and paste it into a different browser window to preview your reCAPTCHA (02:41).

You can fill in your details and submit them to test this out.

Also Read: Google Site Kit Plugin Setup Tutorial: Connect to Analytics, Search Console, Adsense in WordPress

In closing

That’s how you can add reCaptcha to your comments to prevent misuse and spam on your WordPress website.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know in the comments section below, and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter and youtube channel for more of these tips and tutorials.