Spam comments are a two-part problem: what’s already accumulated, sitting in your spam or pending queue, and what keeps arriving because the filtering catching it isn’t configured as well as it could be. Clearing the backlog without fixing the filter just means doing this again in a few months.
A quick way to gauge how much you’re dealing with
Go to Comments and check the numbers next to Pending and Spam in the filter links at the top; that gives a rough sense of current volume.
It’s informational rather than something you need to interpret carefully before ordering — we assess the real picture, including how much is genuine versus spam, as part of the work itself rather than asking you to sort that distinction out on your own beforehand, which is genuinely difficult to do accurately just by skimming the admin list view yourself. It’s also worth knowing that filter tuning isn’t a permanent, one-time setting — spam techniques evolve, and a configuration that works well today can gradually let more through a year from now, which is worth revisiting every so often rather than simply assuming a good setup today will hold forever completely unattended and unreviewed. Recalling a specific instance of a genuine comment being wrongly caught, if one comes to mind, is also useful context, since it tells us how conservative to set the balance from the very start rather than guessing.
Worth noting roughly how long it’s been since anyone last looked at these queues, since a backlog that’s been building for years behaves differently to work through, and often needs a different filtering baseline, than one that’s only a few weeks old with a much smaller queue to reason about.
Spam comment purge & filter configuration
Spam comments keep piling up faster than filtering catches them. We clear the backlog and tune the filter so less reaches you going forward.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
What we need from you
- Confirmation of which spam filtering plugin, if any, you’re currently using
- Whether genuine comments have ever been incorrectly caught as spam, if you’ve noticed
- Roughly how much comment volume, genuine and spam, your site typically sees
- Whether you want comments moderated manually going forward or filtered automatically
This or something else?
| A large backlog of spam or pending comments needing clearing | This fix covers it |
| Spam filtering configured but still letting too much through | This fix covers it |
| Genuine comments incorrectly caught as spam | This fix covers it |
| General comments table bloat including old pingbacks specifically | Comment table cleanup & pingback purge |
| No spam problem, just want comments disabled entirely | A settings change you can make yourself in Discussion settings |
What we do
- Review current spam volume and how much is genuinely reaching moderation versus being caught
- Clear the existing backlog of spam and unnecessary pending comments
- Configure or tune spam filtering to reduce what reaches you without over-blocking genuine comments
- Set moderation rules appropriate to your comment volume and content type
- Test with a sample of both spam-like and genuine comment patterns
- Confirm the balance between filtering strength and false positives is right for your site
What is included
- Existing spam and unnecessary pending comments cleared
- Spam filtering configured or tuned to reduce future volume
- Moderation settings matched to your actual comment patterns
- The pre-change backup, kept for 30 days
Not included
- Ongoing day-to-day comment moderation
- Building custom spam detection beyond configuring existing tools
- General comments table cleanup of old pingbacks, which is a separate, related fix
- Guaranteeing zero spam ever reaches your queue again
Questions about this fix
Will better filtering block genuine customer comments?
That's the exact balance we tune for — filtering strong enough to meaningfully reduce spam without catching real comments, tested against samples of both before calling it done.
Do I need a paid spam filtering service?
Not necessarily — many sites do well with a properly configured free option. We recommend a paid service only where your volume or spam sophistication genuinely justifies it.
Why does spam keep getting through even with a filter active?
Usually because the filter's settings are still close to default, which catches obvious spam but misses more sophisticated attempts — tuning it to your actual traffic pattern closes much of that gap.
Can you set comments to require approval for first-time commenters only?
Yes, and it's a common, sensible middle ground — repeat, trusted commenters post freely while new ones get a first look, which cuts moderation load without shutting out real engagement.
Will this affect comments already published and visible?
No — this addresses what's in your spam and pending queues and how future comments are filtered; comments already approved and live are untouched.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.