Turnstile is a replacement for the omnipresent CAPTCHA forms that are seen on 98% of websites. This new application accomplishes the same purpose of safeguarding you against spam without requiring you to solve puzzles or give your data to Google.
Cyberattacks, such as brute force attacks and malicious bots, can harm your WordPress website’s performance and compromise user data. We will cover three main topics:
- Understanding Cloudflare and CAPTCHA
- Installing Cloudflare on WordPress
- Configuring Turnstile CAPTCHA.
What is CAPTCHA?
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a security technique used to detect whether a user is human or an automated bot while accessing a website. It provides difficulties that are simple for people but tough for bots to tackle.
Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA offers an additional layer of security by intercepting suspicious traffic and presenting users with a CAPTCHA challenge. This helps filter out malicious bots and protect your website from various threats, including brute force attacks and spam.
Create a Cloudflare account
To get started, if you’ve not done so already, you will need to create a Cloudflare account. Visit the Cloudflare website and sign up for an account by providing the necessary information. Once registered, you’ll gain access to Cloudflare’s suite of services.
Configuring Turnstile CAPTCHA in Cloudflare
- Enabling Turnstile CAPTCHA
After setting up Cloudflare, you can enable the Turnstile CAPTCHA feature. This feature allows Cloudflare to intercept suspicious traffic and present CAPTCHA challenges to potentially malicious visitors.
Follow the steps below to enable Turnstile CAPTCHA for your WordPress website:
Step 1:
- Using your credentials, log in to your Cloudflare account
- Navigate over to Turnstile
Step 2:
- Name your site.
- Enter the domain and find your website in the drop down list.
- Select the widget mode to Managed
- Click the Create button
- Customizing CAPTCHA settings
Cloudflare provides options to customize the appearance and difficulty level of the CAPTCHA challenge. We’ll explore the available settings, allowing you to tailor the CAPTCHA experience for your website’s users while maintaining security.
Cloudflare provides a set of standard settings, but you can modify them according to your preferences.
- Difficulty Level: You can adjust the difficulty level of the CAPTCHA challenge based on your desired security level. Cloudflare offers different difficulty options, such as “Easy,” “Medium,” and “Hard.” Select the appropriate level for your website.
- CAPTCHA Type: Cloudflare supports multiple CAPTCHA types, including image-based challenges and reCAPTCHA. Choose the type that suits your website’s needs and preferences.
- Challenge Frequency: You can set the frequency at which users are presented with CAPTCHA challenges. The options range from “Low” to “High,” depending on how frequently you want to verify users.
- Design and Branding: Cloudflare provides customization options to match the CAPTCHA challenge’s design with your website’s branding. You can upload your logo and choose color schemes to maintain a consistent visual experience.
Install the Cloudflare CAPTCHA plugin
The easiest way to add Cloudflare CAPTCHA to WordPress is with Simple Cloudflare Turnstile. This free plugin allows you to connect your website to the Turnstile service so that it can properly respond to your requests.
- You will need to install and activate the plugin.
- Upon activation, go to Settings – Cloudflare Turnstile.
- Adding a Site Key and Secret Key to a WordPress Site.
The plugin will ask you to provide a website key and secret.
Step 3:
- Copy your Site Key and Secret Key
Step 4:
- Paste your Site Key and Secret Key in to the Cloudflare turnstile plugin settings.
Step 5:
- Enable turnstile on your website forms
- Even works on page builder forms
- Save Changes
- Testing and monitoring
It’s essential to test the functionality of the CAPTCHA feature to ensure it is working correctly. Visit your website as a user and verify that the CAPTCHA challenge is displayed when accessing protected pages or performing specific actions.
Cloudflare also provides comprehensive analytics and reporting tools to monitor the performance of the CAPTCHA feature. Use these tools to gather insights about the CAPTCHA challenges presented, the number of verified users, and any potential false positives or negatives.
Examples
Conclusion
Enabling Turnstile CAPTCHA in the Cloudflare dashboard is a straightforward process that adds an additional layer of security to your WordPress website. By following the steps outlined above, you can activate and customize the CAPTCHA feature to protect your website from malicious bots and unauthorized access attempts.
Remember to regularly monitor the CAPTCHA performance and make adjustments as needed to ensure a balance between security and user experience.
