Do you want to ensure that the forms on your Thrive Themes website generate valid lead entries? Turnstile by Cloudflare and the Thrive spam protection can help.
Note: This Spam Protection feature can be used only in the form element in our visual editor (which does include the registration form). You cannot use this with Thrive Comments.
In this article, we’ll show you two newly introduced methods for protecting forms displayed on your Thrive Themes website from spam.
- Spam Protection Using Turnstile by Cloudflare
- Spam Protection Using the Inbuilt Thrive Spam Protection
Spam Protection Using Turnstile by Cloudflare
Turnstile by Cloudflare is an alternative to the Google re-captcha that can be added to the Thrive Architect forms. This can be done by following the steps below.
- Integrating Thrive Themes with the Turnstile API
- Enabling Turnstile Spam Protection in a Thrive Architect Form
Integrating Thrive Themes with the Turnstile API
To integrate Thrive Themes with Turnstile, open your WordPress admin area, navigate to Thrive Dashboard >> Thrive Dashboard, scroll down to API Connections, and click Manage Connections.
On the Thrive Themes Connection page, click Add New Connection.
When you click Add New Connection, you’ll see a dropdown where you need to select Turnstile.
Selecting Turnstile in the dropdown will open a section where you can select the theme, language, appearance mode, and size of a Re-Captcha, along with the Site and Secret keys, to complete the connection.
After you’ve selected the Theme, Language, Appearance mode, and Size, enter the Site and Secret keys you get from Turnstile by Cloudflare. You can read this guide from Turnstile to know how to obtain the site and secret key to be used here.
Once you enter these keys in their respective fields, click the Connect button.
You’ll see Turnstile mentioned under Active Connections of Thrive Themes when the connection is established successfully.
Enabling Turnstile Spam Protection in a Thrive Architect Form
To enable Turnstile Spam Protection for a Thrive Architect form, open your WordPress admin area, navigate to Pages >> All Pages, and click Edit with Thrive Architect against the page that contains the form.
When the selected page is opened in the Thrive Architect editor, click on the form to see its Main Options open in the left column.
In the left column, scroll down to Spam Protection, click the dropdown, and select Turnstile.
After you select Turnstile under the Spam Protection settings, the Turnstile Re-captcha will be added to the form on the page.
Spam Protection Using the Inbuilt Thrive Spam Protection
Alongside the Turnstile integration, Thrive Themes has an inbuilt Thrive Spam Protection that works with the Honeypot technique.
Note: You can learn more about the Honeypot technique spam protection here.
To enable the built-in Thrive Spam Protection for a form, open your WordPress admin area, navigate to Pages >> All Pages, and click Edit with Thrive Architect against the page that contains the form.
When the selected page is opened in the Thrive Architect editor, click on the form to see its Main Options open in the left column.
In the left column, scroll down to Spam Protection, click the dropdown, and select Thrive Spam Protection.
Since the Honeypot technique adds a hidden field visible only to bots, selecting Thrive Spam Protection will not affect the form’s appearance. It will still look the same.
What is the Honeypot Technique for Spam Protection?
The honeypot technique is a method used to protect websites and online platforms from spam and malicious activity. It involves creating a hidden field or trap on a web form that is invisible to human users but can be detected by bots. Here’s how it works:
- Hidden Field: A form field is added to a web form, often using CSS or JavaScript to hide it from human users. Legitimate users who do not see this field will not fill it out.
- Bot Detection: Automated bots that crawl and submit forms typically do not recognize the hidden nature of these fields. When a bot fills in the hidden field, it signals to the server that the form submission is likely from a bot, as real users would not interact with this field.
- Blocking or Filtering: The server can flag the submission as suspicious if the hidden field is filled. This submission can then be blocked, flagged for review, or subjected to additional scrutiny, thus preventing spam or malicious content from being processed.
The honeypot technique is effective because it targets bot behavior rather than relying solely on CAPTCHAs.
We’ve just seen two methods for implementing spam protection in Thrive Themes and learned about the Honeybot technique for spam protection.
Next, if you want to automate Lead Generation Forms with a non-mandatory email field, you can learn more about it in our article here.