How to add CAPTCHA protection to your WordPress site

CAPTCHA is an effective tool that you can use to prevent your contact forms from being used by automated bots, sometimes called spambots, to post spam on your site. CAPTCHA protection works by displaying an image containing text on each contact form, asking user to solve arithmetic problems or via invisible form fields . Users need to type the displayed CAPTCHA text, solve math problems etc. before they can submit the form. Because automated bots are unable to read and type the text displayed in the CAPTCHA image or solve mathematical problems, they can’t use your forms to generate spam.

There are two steps you need to complete to add CAPTCHA protection to your WordPress site:

  1. Install and activate a CAPTCHA plugin.
  2. Choose your CAPTCHA settings.

Note:
There are several CAPTCHA plugins available for WordPress. In this example, we’re using the Captcha by BestWebSoft plugin, but you are free to choose a different plugin. The procedure for installing, activating, and configuring another plugin may be different. Refer to the plugin’s documentation for more information.

Installing and activating the CAPTCHA plugin

Log in to your WordPress Dashboard as admin. Click Plugins > Add New.

In the Keyword search box, type Captcha by BestWebSoft. Several available CAPTCHA plugins are displayed in the search results. In this example, we’re installing the Captcha by BestWebSoft plugin. Click Install Now. The Install Now button changes to Installing.

When the installation is complete, the button displays Activate. Click Activate.

The plugin is now active and appears in the Installed Plugins list in your WordPress Dashboard.

Choosing your CAPTCHA settings

Now that the plugin is active, you can choose the types of forms that will be protected by CAPTCHA and other settings.

In your WordPress Dashboard, click Captcha menu option > Settings.

After you install CAPTCHA, it is automatically enabled on login, comment, registration, and lost password forms. Because these are the types of forms most often targeted by automated bots, we recommend that you leave these default settings in place.

There are couple default settings that you may want to change:

  • Captcha type – You have the ability to choose between several different captcha methods: arithmetic actions, Optical Character Recognition and Invisible. We recommend using arithmetic actions and you can customize supported actions, complexity and what image packages are used.
  • Captcha title and Advanced protection – This setting is not automatically enabled but you can enable it to assign custom title to your Captcha protection module and other feature will load the captcha protection once the entire page is loaded.

Changing settings

When you’re finished choosing your form types and making any changes in the Settings and Messages sections, click Save Changes.

That’s it! CAPTCHA is now protecting your WordPress site from spambots.

If you have any questions or need help, contact HostPapa Support by opening a support ticket. Details about how to open a support ticket are here.

Related Articles

Get online with our affordable web hosting

Get online with our affordable web hosting

Learn more now
HostPapa Mustache