Stop Comment Spam vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

If you use Akismet, you are likely happy how it recognizes spam, but probably it still bothers you that you have to check recognized spam and reject it. If your blog is target of heavy spam, you may get large number of spams a day, and although Akismet prevents spam to show up on your blog, you still have to administer (delete) it. Stop Comment Spam jumps in that place. It is very likely that you may identify large amount of spam by very precise keywords, and if spam contains specified keyword, it may undoubtedly be considered as 100% spam and rejected without need for Akismet or you to interfere. For instance, my blog is overwhelmed by, what we call Russian spam. Thing is that my blog uses Cyrillic alphabet, and Russian spammers recognize that, so they pay more attention to spam it with comments containing Russian language. As my blog is not in Russian language, I needed tool to recognize if Russian language is used in a comment, and if that is the case, to simply reject it. That is how this plugin became. It also helps a lot with Chinese spam and other verious automated spammers. You may use it to prevent using obscene words or other unwanted words in comments posted on your site. You just define list of words that are unacceptable, and any comment containing any of them would be rejected. Also, you may set similar keyword rules for comment author web site URL. If you have some nasty spammer that is persistent to advertise his site, you just put his site url in forbidden url list and he is gone, any comment using that site as commenter site URL will be rejected. There is option to limit number of allowed links in comment text. That would help stopping link spammers. All you have to do is set number of allowed links within comment. If spammer posts one more than allowed, his comment will be refused. This plugin is simple and straightforward. It will help you to filter out exact words or phrases, but it is not strong against more profane spammers. But, that is what Akismet is for. This plugin works as Akismet companion. It filters out obvious spam and lets Akismed deal with rest. Author uses this plugin personally since year 2009, and it prooved to be very helpful. It stopped two times more spamm comments than Akismet. This does not mean Akismet is worse, just that two thirds of spam comming to my blog were so obvious that simple tool like StopCommentSpam could handle it leaving Akismet to deal with less but more delicate spam. Keyword examples To stop spam comments using Russian language add these as forbidden comments contents: ы ю щ я э ь й ё пасибо что все Все Мне мне автор Что To stop some spam linking to spam or malicious sitees ad these to forbidden URL contents: .cn healthcare drugstore mail loan finance insurance viagra baidu.com clearance forum xxx topic gscraper jimdo nikeschuhe jordan discount money pharmacy

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.