My client list has grown beyond all recognition since my website was built. However, so has the amount of spam! What should I do?

A website is a great way to gain new clients and any business will benefit from it. However, it is easy for your email address to be found by 'spiders' that automatically search all websites for email addresses.

For the purpose of this article I am assuming that your address has been added to a spam list automatically by one of these 'spiders' that are used by the spammers to harvest email address. For other ways to reduce spam see my article on how to reduce spam.

For most sites the amount of spam being received is controllable but, if you are getting inundated then here are a few options:

1. Remove your email address from your website! Yes, really! All you need do is change any email link to a link to a contact form. This stops the spiders and you can also ask for relevant information on the form.
2. ''Obfuscate' the address (make it harder to read). Speak to your web designer - he should know how to do this!
3. Replace the text ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with a picture (make sure you add a description for screen readers).

All of these solutions have their own drawbacks: they don't work all the time and will cause you to lose genuine emails.

My advice is to put your address in plain text and only remove this if Spam becomes a problem.

Your email spam filters are your main defence.

Q&A