How do I train Akismet to catch more spam?

Akismet is always learning and getting better. If you see a piece of spam that Akismet missed, marking it as spam helps Akismet learn and catch similar spam in the future.

Mark blog comments as spam

To teach Akimset that an individual comment is spam, hover over it and press the “Spam” button.

The comment section of WP Admin. There is an arrow pointing to the option of "Spam" next to a comment.

Mark multiple comments as spam

If you have multiple comments you want to mark as spam, follow these steps:

  1. Check the boxes next to the comments
  2. Select the “Mark as Spam” option from the bulk menu option at the top of the screen
  3. Press the “Apply” button.

Mark a comment as “not spam”

Sometimes Akismet will flag something as spam when it is actually a legitimate submission. This is called a “false positive.”

In this case, find the comment or contact form submission and click “not spam” to train Akismet not to flag similar submissions as spam.

Mark contact form submissions as spam

Depending on which type of contact form you are using, you may be able to mark contact form submissions as spam as well.

For example, with Jetpack’s contact form (either the Form block, or the classic editor version), you can manually mark comments as spam/not spam via the Feedback section of WP Admin.

If you continue to see things getting through that you’ve marked as spam, please reach out to Akismet Support with a few example comments and we’ll be happy to look into this further.

If you have general questions about Akismet, please contact us.