Adding ReCAPTCHA in Wordpress

CAPTCHA –a software program that differentiates humans from automated comments. CAPTCHA stands for (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) this is a security image dynamically drawn to be read by the commentators and they have to type it in the captcha box to be able to process their comments. CAPTCHA originated in Carnegie Mellon University use as an anti-spam killer. Without CAPTCHA in your comments or sign-up form system, there is a high risk of experiencing the bombardment of SPAM by SPAM bots.

Without CAPTCHA I was receiving hundreds of SPAMS a day, I decided to install a CAPTCHA in my self-hosted wordpress site, and a very noticeable results happened to my comments system… no more SPAM, but some are complaining that still a lot of SPAM are able to penetrate the CAPTCHA program. I still haven’t encountered this problem.

Adding ReCAPTCHA in Wordpress

1. To be able to add a ReCAPTCHA in your comments to a self-hosted Wordpress site you need to sign-up for an account in the ReCAPTCHA website. Sign-up here.

2. After signing up, to be able to activate the RECAPTCHA Plug-in in your website you need to have a ReCAPTCHA Key. You can get it in your ReCAPTCHA Account, after adding your website. There are two options that you need to set, if you have more than one website you need to have a GLOBAL Key. This will help you avoid generating a new ReCAPTCHA key everytime that you add a ReCAPTCHA in your new website.

3. You will be given at least two keys one Public Key and one Private Key, you will need this later when you set-up your ReCaptcha in your website.

4. Now that you have a key… download the ReCAPTCHA Plug-in for your wordpress here is the URL:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-recaptcha/

5. After downloading the Plug-in you need to upload it in your plug-in directory of your Wordpress site. When you’re done uploading it to your directory, activate it in the plug-in section and in the settings page, set the two keys in the ReCAPTCHA settings page. Then that’s it you’re done and ready to go.