WordPress powers 30% of the web according to W3Tecs – a survey firm. With this Amazing content management system, you can create beautiful and professional websites. You can even use plugins such as Woocommerce to create a fully-fledged web store.
Even with its popularity, WordPress sites have become a target of spam and abuse. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem.
Google has invented a very popular security service known as re-CAPTCHA that can safeguard your WordPress site and differentiate human from bots. The technology works pretty well in all type of input forms (e.g. login forms and comment forms)
In this guide, we will show you how to install and configure Google re-CAPTCHA on your WordPress website.
Special Note: if you are concerned about security on your WP site, using a hosting service that specialized in WordPress hosting will allow you to improve your site’s security. We recommend that you choose from the best WordPress hosting services reviewed in Hostadvice, complete with expert and user reviews and features.
Prerequisites
- A domain name(e.g. www.example.com)
- A hosting account that supports WordPress
- WordPress admin login credentials
Step 1: Log in to your WordPress site
The first step is logging on your WordPress site by visiting the fully qualified domain name of your website followed by ‘/wp-admin’.
For instance, if your domain name is ‘www.example.com’, enter the URL below:
http://www.example.com
Then, enter your username and password and click ‘Log In’ to proceed as shown below:
Step 2: Install the Google re-CAPTCHA plugin
Installing Google re-CAPTCHA code manually is a tedious and lengthy process. However, we can use a plugin that will automate the installation and setup process for us.
On your wordpress dashboard, locate the ‘Plugins’ menu on the left side bar and click on ‘Add New’ as shown below:
On the next screen, you have two different options for installing a plugin; you can either upload it or choose it from the list. We will use the search functions to find our Google re-CAPTCHA plugin.
So on the search box, enter ‘google captcha’ as the keyword and hit enter. Once the search list is displayed, select ‘Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft’ and click on the ‘Install Now’ button as shown below:
Step 3: Activate the Google re-CAPTCHA plugin
Next, click on Plugins on the left sidebar menu to display a list of all installed plugins, locate Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft and click ‘Activate’
Once the plugin is activated, click on the settings on the same screen:
On the next screen, you will see an option for entering a Site Key and a Secret Key from Google.
On your browser, go to a new tab and visit the URL below to obtain the details:
https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin#list
On the label, enter a title for your site (e.g. My Sample Website Keys)
On the ‘Choose the type of reCAPTCHA’ option, select reCAPTCHA v2 box. Enter your domain name (e.g. ‘example.com’). Then, accept the terms of service and click ‘Register’
A new set of API keys will be created once you hit the register button as shown below.
You will need to copy paste these details back to your WordPress site under the Google Captcha Settings page. When you enter the details, click on ‘Save Changes’
Step 4: Test re-Captcha
Click on the ‘Test re-CAPTCHA’ button to see if setup was completed without any problems. If all goes well, you should see the image below:
Click on ‘Test Verification’ and you should get the message, “The verification is successfully completed.”
If you logout from your WordPress site, you should see the re-CAPTCHA option. This means you have successfully enabled the plugin. The re-CAPTCHA option will be displayed in all forms including comments.
Conclusion
We have shown you how to install and setup Google re-CAPTCHA on your WordPress site. With the security measure in place, malicious bots will no longer be able to send spam comments or attempt to login to your WordPress site. I hope this guide will assist you to add another layer of security to your WordPress site.
Check out the top 3 WordPress hosting services:
- Click here to get the best wordpress hosting specialized for wordpress.
