ASKIMET – Part 2 of a 25 Part WordPress Series

If you read my previous post on Installing WordPress then here is the long awaited part 2 of the 25 part series on WordPress and other stuff (as I lovingly title it today).

If you don’t know what ASKIMET is then you definitely know what Spam is.  We all hate Spam and the endless ridiculous emails that we get into our inboxes (admittedly GMail users see little of it these days).  unless you are in the market for Viagra then spam is something you can do without.

The other hated type of Spam is comment Spam.  This is sent by Pygmies who live in the Tibetan mountains and by all accounts they are a busy bunch.  When you finish your install with WordPress the probability is high that within days you will starting getting comments from the spam pygmies on your posts who smell every new blog with their blog sniffing tools.

So when you get all excited to see a comment and the read it and it will probably say something along the lines of

“Great Post I really enjoyed it.  It awakened new thoughts in my mind.  check out my Viagra site interesting site here <a href=”completely spammy – virus ridden link from hell>”

And it will continue day after day unless you put a stop to it.  The most reliable to stop this is to install a plugin to block it.  Plugins are the backbone of WordPress and there are hundreds of great free ones available.  There are hundreds of dreadful ones as well available but you wont see any of those mentioned here – no sireeee.  Plugins for WordPress are again one clickers (remember part one the one click installs).  Well sometimes a plugin may take two clicks but the workout will be worth it.

If you don’t know what a plugin is don’t worry I am here to help lets look at where these puppies are.

Installing Plugins for WordPress

Over on the left of your dashboard you will see the plugins options.  It may not be expanded so click on the small arrow nest to the word Plugin (OK next to the letter s in Plugins) and Select Add New.  Don’t be scared all will be well.  Admittedly there are some plugins that when you install will completely hose your site.  I am not joking here they will block your login and take some back end work to fix.  I have had this experience in the past few weeks alone.  The plugin looked OK installed nicely.  I configured it.  Logged out then couldn’t log back in.  I fixed it but the broken cups and abusive language wasn’t worth it.

Adding Askimet

The method for installing Askimet is practically identical for all plugins so I wont dwell on that too much but after the excitement of selecting Add New you will end up with a window like this.  Type in Askimet into the Search Plugins window and don’t be shocked if you find the plugin.

When you find it click Install Now and in a few seconds you will see it installed.  Click Activate and the plugin is installed.

But There is a Little More Work to Do

After you have activated the Askimet plugin you will see up top of your screen text like in the figure below asking you to enter your Askimet API key.  Before you run away shrieking in fear at the word API don’t worry.  Relax getting and API key is as easy as getting a key cut at the cobblers.  Read on.

Getting An API Key is easy.  The kind folks at Askimet will give you one for free or you can give a donation if you are feeling generous.  Its up to you.  Go to https://akismet.com and select a personal Askimet key and follow the easy steps and add your details.  If it is a business site then consider giving them some money.  It is a great tool and weeds out the tools from the blood sucking spammers.  You will then get an email from them with the key.

Go back to the Installed Plugins section.  Select Enter Your Askimet API key that was emailed to you and you are done.  Askimet does the rest.  Filters out the spam and even auto deletes it after a month so you don’t have to do anything.

And that’s it…

25 Things I Do for Every WordPress Site I Install – The Series

1. Install WordPress of course!
2. Install Askimet Plugin the spammers will find you within seconds
3. Use a static page as the front end as more and more of my sites are CMS
4. For a low cost site with a template I edit the php to remove the commenting features on pages as I don’t want commenting on the pages but do on the posts.
5. Tell Google Webmasters you exist by registering the site using your Analytics account
6. Create an About Page
7. Create a Contact Page
8. Add a contact form to the above contact page
9. If the company has a location then I add a Google Map to the contact page.
10. Add an XML Sitemap plugin to auto create the sitemap.
11. Generate this sitemap.
12. Generate a page that contains this sitemap.  There are plugins to do this as well.  Install one and update it regularly
13. Create a page with a privacy policy.  If there isn’t one yet then write some text to that effect.
14. Create at least one main menu with Home, About and Contact.  This will grow over time.
15. Add Social Media icons to sidebar for the company.  If they don’t have social media accounts link the icons to a page that says so and ask people who click through for which ones are their favourites.
16. Get the customer to create a GMail account and get Google Analytics code
17. Add this Google Analytics code to the site.
18. Install Yoasts SEO plugin – it is the best I have seen lately.
19. Fix the Permalinks that are set by default for some combination of the actual post or page name.  Better for search.
20. Install Testimonials Widgets – if you don’t have Testimonials then you should ask for some and add them.
21. When you get your first testimonial – add the testimonial widget  it to sidebar or footer.
22. Weite 3 Posts for the Blog and establish categories.  No ideas for a post here are 3 straight away.  About You, Why You have this Site, Plans for the Site. Done
23. Install social sharing plugin for these posts. You never know someone may like them
24. Create a domain specific email address like myname@example.com
25. Make sure that your contact details are above the fold for all pages and especially on the contact page.

Related posts:

1. Install WordPress – Part 1 of a 25 Parts Series
2. Create a Contact Page – Part 7 of a 25 Part WordPress Series
3. Static Page for WordPress Part 3 of a 25 Part WordPress Series
4. Tip 5 of 25 WordPress Tips: Tell Google Webmasters You Exist