How to Stop Spam Comments on Your Showit Website / WordPress Blog

If you have a Showit website, and have been getting an influx of strange, spam-like comments coming through your blog, don’t panic.

First, I want to assure you, you haven’t been hacked and your account is safe (and breathe… 😮‍💨).

Spam comments on your Showit site are a common issue (and annoying as hell) but they’re quick and easy to fix when you know how.

They can happen on any site with a blog, and while they can feel unsettling (especially if it looks like they’re coming from your account), they’re not a huge risk to security.

In this post, I’ll explain what spam comments are and why they happen. Then tell you exactly how to block spam or turn off blog comments completely.

I follow these same steps with my client websites and my own site too, and it gets them gone immediately.

So with that, let’s get you sorted and spam-free!

What are spam comments, and why do they happen?

What spam comments are

Without getting too techy, spam comments are usually created by bots not people.

They crawl the internet looking for blogs they can interact with, or accounts with vulnerabilities (outdated plugins, etc.).

Sounds creepy, and I guess is kinda creepy.

Why you are getting them

If you have a Showit website, your blog content is handled through WordPress. If you’re getting spam comments, that means your blog comments are turned on with no restrictions.

It’s important to know the bots aren’t targeting you or your website personally. Though even Joe Goldberg would be impressed by their persistence.

They’re just doing what bots do and crawling everything. They’re really not fussy.

What are they trying to achieve?

You’ll notice the comments either don’t make sense, or talk about a totally unrelated topic to what your blog post is about. But why?

That’s because the goal of a spam bot is usually to either share links to spam websites, or try and boost their own SEO by creating a backlink to their own website.

Never good, but not always a sinister as we imagine.

Why you don’t want spam comments

Even if they might seem harmless, spam comments can cause a few issues on your site:

They clutter your dashboard and inbox – overwhelming AF.
They skew analytics and engagement data – was that user a real user, or a bot? We’ll never know…
They look unprofessional if they ever make it live – spam comments make your site look spammy too.
They can harm your site’s credibility – having spam links makes people wonder if they can trust you
They can impact SEO over time – search engines, like Google, expect you to keep your site tidy, and spam comments makes your site look neglected.

Basically, they’re annoying at best and a risk you just don’t need at worst. Let’s get them gone!

Were the comments made inside my account?

You might have gone to check who’s even leaving these comments, only to see it was you.

INSTANT PANIC. The call is coming from inside the house!

Even if the comments look like they’re coming from your own account, showing you as the original author, they haven’t actually been inside your account.

It just means the bots have snuck their way in through the back-end to leave a comment. And because they haven’t signed-in with an account, WordPress sets it to the default author, which is you. (Cheers for the heart attack, WordPress!)

But don’t worry, they can’t access your account or blog content, it just looks that way. Phew!

I don’t even have a comment form on my Showit blog

You might be confused wondering how the hell can bots comment if there’s no comment form on your website. This is what catches a lot of people out.

You’d think no comment form = no spam. But that’s not the case.

Even if you don’t have a visible comment section, the functionality is still there on the back end.

These bots don’t care what your site actually looks like, and they can’t see your pretty blog design like we can. They just access the hidden code, and that’s how they’re able to leave comments without a form.

Yep, definitely creepy!

How Showit blogs work

Incase you didn’t already know, your Showit site handles the design side of your website, but your blog content lives in WordPress.

This means:

Posts
Categories
Comments
Spam settings
Plugins

All live inside WordPress not Showit. Kinda confusing, I know.

You can find out more about Showit and WordPress integrate in the post:

Showit & WordPress: How do they compare and can they work together?

How to access the WordPress side of your Showit site

To stop spam, you’ll need to log into your WordPress account.

Head to yourdomain.com/wp-admin, and log in using your WordPress credentials.

These are usually the same email and password as your Showit account, unless you’ve changed them yourself after your blog was originally setup by the Showit support team.

Now how to stop spam comments coming through

There’s two ways you can stop comments. Either by turning them off or by restricting who them so only signed in account users can comment.

Fix Option 1: Turn comments off completely

If you don’t need blog comments at all, follow the steps below. This works for any tier Showit subscription, so you don’t need to upgrade your account.

1. Disable new comments

Even if you’ve never had a comment section on your blog, these steps are important to stop comments getting in through the back-end.

Log into your WordPress account (yourdomain.com/wp-admin)
Go to Settings > Discussion
Uncheck Allow people to submit comments on new posts
Save changes, done.

2. Update existing posts

Next, you’ll want to disable comments on any existing posts too.

Here’s how:

Go to Posts
Select all posts (make sure to adjust the view so all posts are in view)
From Bulk Actions, choose Edit and click Apply
Under Comments, choose Do not allow
Click Update

Done! This will stop any new spam coming in through existing posts.

3. Check your single post page design in Showit

Finally, you’ll also want to checking your single post page design inside Showit.

Even if comments are disabled on WordPress, there might still be a comment form on the page design itself. It won’t function when comments are disabled but removing the form avoids confusion and keeps everything clean.

Log in to the Showit design app
Open your Single Post design
Look for any comment-related canvases or text like “Leave a comment” or “Comments”
Delete those canvases or elements entirely

Remember, deleting the form on your site doesn’t stop spam on its own. Make sure to follow the steps above too.

And you’re done – woop! 🎉 Now if you want even more protection, you can continue to option 2, or check out more website related posts here.

Fix Option 2: Keep comments but restrict them

If you do want comments, you’ll want to add some restrictions.

Log into your WordPress account (yourdomain.com/wp-admin)
Go to Settings > Discussion
Tick Comment author must fill out name and email
And tick Users must be registered and logged in to comment
You can also tick Comment must be manually approved (optional) if you want to be extra strict
Save changes, done.

This alone helps stop a huge amount of bot spam. You really shouldn’t have any issues after this.

BUT if you really want to stick it to the bots you can go eeeven further by installing a plugin.

Recommended plugins to stop spam

Hold on. What’s a damn plugin?

Ok, not to give you more of a headache but a plugin is a small add-on you can install on WordPress to give it extra features or protection without needing to code.

Think of it like an app for your site that does a specific job, like blocking spam (yay!), adding forms, selling products, etc. There’s loads of plugins out there, and they all have different purposes.

To use plugins on your Showit website, you’ll need the advanced Showit blog plan.

If you don’t already have an advanced blog, you’ll need to contact Showit to upgrade your account. This will increase your subscription by an extra $10/month. To upgrade, contact support in the Showit app.

The advanced plan also requires updating your domain DNS settings, as Showit support will need to transfer your site to a new server. So that’s something to consider before continuing on.

Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet is a great plugin that soley targets spam blog comments.

Here’s what it does:

Filters spam comments and form submissions automatically
Checks activity against a global spam database in real time
Blocks most spam before it ever appears on your site
Runs quietly in the background with very little setup or maintenance
Saves you from manually approving or deleting spam comments

How to Install a Akismet plugin

To install plugin Akismet, again you’ll need the advanced Showit blog plan if you don’t already have it.

The follow these steps:

Log into your WordPress account (yourdomain.com/wp-admin)
On the left panel, click Plugins > Add Plugin
Next search for Askimet Anti-Spam
When found, click Install Now
When installed, click Activate

Next, click the sign up link to setup your free Akismet account.

When done, do these final steps:

In WordPress, on the left panel, go to plugins.
Find the Akismet plugin on your list
In the far column, click ‘Enable auto-updates’
Save changes, and you’re done!

I’ve done everything but spam is still getting through

Ok, if you’ve done the fixes above but spam is STILL getting through (Joe really would be tipping his cap at this point), there are a few more things worth checking.

I mentioned earlier how bots don’t just target comment sections, they also look for website vulnerabilities. These are things that can make it easier to hack into your account.

Showit and WordPress do a good job of locking down your site, and keeping everything in check behind the scenes. But there’s some things you’ll want to an eye on (especially if you’re on the advanced blog).

Here’s what to check next:

Make sure all plugins are up to date
Enable auto-updates for all plugins
Delete any plugins you’re no longer using (don’t just deactivate them)
Change your password (stronger the better)
Limit admin access to only those who need it

And finally, if spam is still getting through after all of this, it’s worth reaching out to the Showit support team. They can check whether there’s anything unusual going on with your account and help you troubleshoot further. Good luck!

A final note before you go…

Spam comments happen to the best of us, and getting spam really isn’t something you’ve done wrong, or a rare issue with your site. It’s just something that gets overlooked until it actually happens.

So, take a breath, follow the steps above, and you should be golden! 😌

Til the next one,

Beckie

P.S. If you want some support to check over your site for peace of mind, feel free to send me an email at hello@northrose.co. I’m always here and happy to help!