WordPress comment moderation lets you decide which comments become public, which wait for review, and which are treated as spam or deleted. Set your site-wide rules under Settings → Discussion, then handle the review queue at Dashboard → Comments. For a specific post, use its Discussion panel or the Posts bulk editor to close comments.
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The safest setup combines a clear approval policy, carefully chosen moderation keys, required commenter details, and a routine for checking pending, spam, and trash folders. WordPress can reduce automated abuse with these built-in controls, but no setting eliminates every spam comment.
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“Comment moderation is a feature in WordPress that allows you to prevent comments from appearing on your site without your express approval.” — WordPress.org Documentation, “Comment moderation.”
Moderation affects the publication state of each comment. A comment can be held for a decision, published immediately under your rules, classified as spam, or moved to trash. These are workflow states rather than four interchangeable deletion options: each has a different visibility and recovery implication.
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| Status | What readers see | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Not public | Review it and approve, edit, reply, mark as spam, or trash it. |
| Approved | Public on the associated post | Leave it published, unapprove it, edit it, or remove it if circumstances change. |
| Spam | Hidden as unwanted | Check for false positives and restore legitimate comments before cleanup. |
| Trash | Hidden from the site | Recover an accidental removal or leave it for automatic permanent deletion after 30 days. |
Interface wording can vary with the WordPress version, theme, or hosting configuration. If a label differs slightly, look for the same setting or status by function rather than relying on an exact screen layout.
Choose a site-wide comment policy
Start at Settings → Discussion. These settings establish defaults for new posts and determine how much work reaches your moderation queue.
Decide whether new posts accept comments
Use the discussion settings to allow or disallow comments on newly published posts. This is a default, not an irreversible rule: you can override it for an individual post later. If your site rarely needs discussion, disabling comments by default prevents a queue from forming on content that was never intended to receive replies.
Require useful commenter details
WordPress can require a commenter to enter a name and email address. This does not verify a person’s identity, but it removes many low-effort submissions and gives moderators a consistent identifier when a repeat commenter returns.
Limit comments to registered users
You can require commenters to be registered and logged in. This creates more friction for visitors and is usually unsuitable for an open public discussion, but it can work for a membership site, internal community, or support area where account ownership matters more than anonymous participation.
Choose notification behavior
Under the discussion email options, enable the notice for A comment is held for moderation if administrators need an alert as soon as a comment enters review. You can also enable a notice when a new comment is posted, depending on how closely you want to monitor comments that bypass approval.
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Configure the “Before a comment appears” rules
The Before a comment appears section controls whether comments can publish without a human decision.
Always require administrator approval
Enable An administrator must always approve the comment when every contribution needs review before publication. This is the most predictable policy for a small site, a high-risk topic, a newly launched community, or a site experiencing a spam campaign. Its cost is workload: even a genuine comment waits until someone approves it.
Recognize previously approved commenters
The previously approved commenter rule can let a matching email address bypass review after that person has had one comment approved. It is useful in an established community where repeat participants are trustworthy. It is not proof that every future message from that address is safe, so continue to investigate suspicious links, copied text, or account changes.
If both rules are enabled, the always-approve requirement takes precedence and all comments still wait for review. Select the combination that matches your staffing and risk tolerance rather than enabling every control automatically.
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The Comment Moderation field holds comments that contain a chosen number of links or a matching moderation key. WordPress checks the comment and its metadata. A key can match inside a larger word, so a short fragment may catch unrelated words as well as the spam term you intended to target.
Set a link-count threshold
Choose the number of links that should send a comment to moderation. A low threshold is effective when your site receives link-heavy automated spam. It can also hold legitimate tutorials, troubleshooting answers, or resource lists that need several references. Start with a threshold that reflects the sort of comments you actually want, then adjust it after observing false positives.
Add targeted moderation keys
Enter distinctive spam words, phrases, IP addresses, or patterns that you have repeatedly seen. Use complete, specific terms whenever possible. Broad fragments create false positives because matching occurs inside words; for example, a short sequence may appear in an innocent product name or ordinary sentence. Review the pending queue after adding keys and remove entries that catch too much legitimate conversation.
Understand disallowed keys
Disallowed Comment Keys is an automatic deletion list, not a review list. When a comment or its metadata matches one of these terms, WordPress deletes the comment immediately without notifying you. Reserve this field for material you are certain should never be retained, and avoid common words that could remove a valuable contribution. Keep a record of changes so you can diagnose an unexpected disappearance.
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WordPress sends moderation notices to the site administration address when A comment is held for moderation is enabled. A post author with at least the Editor role and permission to edit comments may also receive the notice. A default Author does not have comment-moderation rights and does not receive that moderation email.
For a team, decide who owns the queue and set an internal response expectation. A notification is only useful if someone can open the dashboard, make a decision, and handle false positives. If the administration mailbox is shared, make sure more than one person can access it without granting broader WordPress privileges than necessary.
Process the queue in Dashboard → Comments
Open Dashboard → Comments to review comments across the site. The status filters are All, Pending, Approved, Spam, and Trash. Work from the pending list first so legitimate readers are not left waiting, then inspect spam and trash when you are correcting mistakes or preparing a cleanup.
Review an individual comment
- Open Dashboard → Comments and select the relevant status filter, usually Pending.
- Read the full comment, not just the excerpt. Check whether the message answers the post, uses a plausible name and email, and contains links or language that needs verification.
- Hover over the comment to expose the available actions: Approve/Unapprove, Reply, Quick Edit, Edit, Spam, and Trash.
- Choose Approve to publish it, Unapprove to return a published comment to review, Reply to answer publicly, Quick Edit or Edit to correct it, Spam to hide unwanted material, or Trash to remove it while retaining a temporary recovery path.
Use bulk actions for a backlog
For a group of comments, select the checkboxes, choose a bulk action, and apply it. Available actions include Approve, Unapprove, Mark as Spam, and Move to Trash. Bulk actions are efficient for an obvious automated burst, but inspect enough samples first to ensure a moderation key or bot pattern has not captured genuine replies.
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Reply without losing the moderation decision
Replying is a separate action from approving. If a pending comment deserves a public answer, approve it first or use the available reply workflow and confirm its resulting status. Keep private decisions—such as why a link was rejected—out of a public reply; use your team’s internal notes or moderation process instead.
Understand spam and trash before deleting
Marking a comment as Spam hides it as unwanted and separates it from normal review. Marking it as Trash removes it from the public conversation but keeps it temporarily. Trash comments are automatically deleted permanently after 30 days.
Check both Spam and Trash before permanent cleanup. A legitimate comment can be misclassified by a link threshold, moderation key, bulk action, or a moderator’s quick decision. Restore or approve a genuine contribution while it is still available; after automatic deletion, WordPress no longer provides that comment through the trash workflow.
Close comments on one post or many
Close comments on an individual post
- Edit the post in the WordPress editor.
- Open the post’s Discussion panel. If the panel is hidden, use the editor’s preferences or panel controls to reveal it.
- Set comments to Closed.
- Save or update the post.
Closing comments prevents new replies on that post. It does not erase comments that are already published; manage existing entries separately from Dashboard → Comments.
Close comments on many posts
- Open Posts and select the posts that should no longer accept comments.
- Choose Bulk Edit.
- Set Comments to Do not allow.
- Apply the change and verify a sample of the edited posts.
Use bulk editing for a deliberate group, such as an archive of old posts. Keep a list of the selection if the change may need to be reversed later.
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WordPress recommends combining several controls rather than relying on one switch. The right mix depends on whether your priority is fast publishing, a low-risk conversation, or minimizing moderator time.
| Control | Best use | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Always require approval | Small or high-risk sites where every comment needs review | Maximum workload and slower discussion |
| Previously approved commenter | Repeat communities with trusted participants | A matching email can reduce review for future comments, but it is not a guarantee of safety |
| Link-count threshold | Sites targeted by link-heavy spam | Legitimate resource-rich comments may be held |
| Moderation keys | Known spam words, phrases, IPs, or patterns | Broad keys can create false positives because matches occur inside larger words |
| Disallowed keys | Clearly unacceptable terms that should be removed immediately | Matching comments are deleted without notification |
| Anti-spam plugin | Higher-volume sites needing automated filtering | Adds a third-party dependency and requires maintenance |
A sensible starting configuration
- Require a commenter name and email address.
- Decide whether anonymous visitors should be allowed or whether registration and login are appropriate for your community.
- Hold comments with more links than a normal reader would need in a reply.
- Add only distinctive moderation keys that you have actually encountered.
- Keep disallowed keys limited to terms you are willing to delete automatically.
- Enable moderation email and assign someone to process the queue.
- Revisit the rules after reviewing false positives and recurring spam patterns.
These measures reduce automated abuse but do not stop every spammer. A clear policy—what you publish, edit, or reject—remains necessary when a message passes the automated checks.
When built-in moderation is not enough
A site with a high comment volume may need automated filtering in addition to WordPress’s native rules. An anti-spam plugin can classify likely abuse before it reaches the ordinary queue, reducing repetitive work. Treat it as an optional escalation, not a replacement for a policy or for periodic review of spam and trash.
The official spam guidance names Akismet as one optional plugin path after you have reviewed built-in settings and kept WordPress and its plugins up to date. Check the plugin’s current documentation, compatibility, data-handling terms, and maintenance status before installing any third-party service. Do not assume an automated classification is correct: inspect its spam folder for legitimate comments.
Troubleshoot common moderation problems
Legitimate comments are stuck in Pending
- Check whether An administrator must always approve the comment is enabled.
- Review the link-count threshold; a resource-rich answer may have exceeded it.
- Inspect moderation keys for short fragments that match inside ordinary words.
- Approve the comment, then narrow the rule that caused the false positive.
Spam is still appearing publicly
- Confirm that the post’s discussion setting allows the policy you intended.
- Check whether comments are bypassing approval under the previously approved commenter rule.
- Lower the permitted link count or add a narrowly targeted moderation key based on the new pattern.
- For sustained high volume, evaluate an anti-spam plugin while continuing to review classifications.
A comment disappeared without reaching the queue
- Inspect Spam and Trash first.
- Review Disallowed Comment Keys; a match is deleted immediately without notification.
- Check whether a bulk action or another moderator moved it.
- If it is older than 30 days in trash, it may already have been permanently deleted.
Moderators are not receiving email
- Verify that A comment is held for moderation is enabled under Settings → Discussion → Email me whenever.
- Confirm the site administration address and inspect its spam or filtering rules.
- Check the user’s role and capabilities: a default Author does not have comment-moderation rights, while an Editor with permission to edit comments may receive the notice.
Maintain a repeatable moderation routine
Set a review schedule that matches your publishing pace. During each pass, clear pending comments, sample the spam folder for false positives, and inspect recent trash before it ages out. Record recurring phrases, domains, or IP patterns before adding a key, and document why a broad term was rejected.
When you change a rule, test it with a harmless example or monitor the next batch closely. A moderation system is successful when genuine readers can participate without unnecessary delay and unwanted material is filtered without silently removing legitimate contributions.
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