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Should You Have WordPress Comments On or Off?

Should You have Comments on Your WordPress Blog

Over the years, there has been a debate about the value of allowing comments on your site — or not. Some folks think they have to enable comments just because they notice what others in their market are doing.

Since I discuss this topic with every site owner I work with; this post serves to share my decision-making process for my sites. What tends to bring this up is the fact that folks notice none of my blogs have the ability to leave comments by the site visitors.

Comments on or comments off is a decision that has to be made on a site-by-site, business-by-business basis. So here are some things to consider as you are in the decision-making process.

Why I’ve Turned Off Comments

On this site, I’ve had comments off for what seems like forever. Why?

  • The majority of comments were either self-serving or spammers. These comments did not contribute to the post’s topic or encourage ongoing valuable discussions.
  • Monitoring comments took time I didn’t have. If you have comments turned on, you really should set them to be monitored before being live on your website. This helps you to weed out spam and scams. But to make that work, you must be on top of incoming relevant comments so they are live as quickly as possible. And that takes time — lots of it.
  • Many users do not take the time to communicate clearly (typos, all small case, or all caps). All my blogs are for those that communicate coherently and professionally. Sadly, too many are unable to do that.
  • Folks wanted free advice and detailed how-tos. While I don’t mind helping here and there, giving advice pro bono to those who had no intention of ever hiring me took away from those clients who had already given me their trust.

On all my websites, I’ve played with having comments turned on. I am big into answering visitor questions and having those discussions, but for me, it never lives up to my hopes. I always regret doing so, eventually turning them off for many of the reasons above.

Now, let’s go over some other companies and their decision-making process.

Google’s Webmaster Blog

This occurred on January 11, 2019: An Update on Google Webmaster Blog Comments.  Comments closed.

For every train there’s a passenger, but it turns out comments are not our train.

The Copyblogger Saga

I’ve followed Copyblogger’s blog (“We Help Writers Succeed in the Creator Economy.”) to keep tabs on the content marketing world and to improve my skills. Watching their journey on whether to have comments on or off their blog was interesting.

Here’s how it went…

03.24.14: Copyblogger Removed Comments

Copyblogger posted: Why We’re Removing Comments on Copyblogger.

While I didn’t do so for those exact reasons, I agree very much with what the post contained. The post ends with “Let the experiment begin!”.

01.11.16: Then Copyblogger Reversed and Opened Up Comments

The experiment is over. As part of the relaunch of the new Copyblogger, comments are back on — but only for two weeks after a post is published.

Sometime after that, the two weeks went down to 7 days, and the dates on comments were not displayed. I get it — they missed the feedback. Feedback, trends, and knowing what their market wants are how Copyblogger evolved into the company they are today.

This reflects how everyone has to do what works for them. Test and tune — try things out. Then, if it works for you — go for it. If not, that’s fine too.

For example, my approach may not be for everyone. For my sites, email works best as I prefer one-to-one communications. I’m not in the business of building communities — or catering to those only looking for free advice. But that’s the decision I’ve made for my websites.

For some sites, not having a comment section would mean they may not be as popular. Their popularity is built on the discourse provided, with the comments section being a primary draw to the site.

Comments, the ensuing discussions, and the community that is created are the heart of the website. And then, for other websites, there is a middle ground. Comments are enabled on a post-by-post basis or for a limited time frame.

Over the years, I’ve noticed various changes to comment strategies and policies in my daily travels. There is no trend to be on or off — it is clearly what works for the site owner or the website overall.

Test and See What Works for Your Website

You can test which level of commenting or if no comments will work for you. Of course, you can always test the waters and see how your site visitors react. The advantage of having a website is that site visitors will let you know what they like or don’t like. If you are unsure, create a survey.

  • Can you commit the time to monitor, review, and approve comments quickly as needed?
  • Do you have a detailed Comment Policy posted on your website so that users know the rules of the game?
  • Have you thought about how, where, and when you will draw the line when it comes to the level of participation you personally want to provide? Comments should be responded to after all.

Inevitably it is up to you to weigh the pluses and minuses as they apply to your business model, goals — and available time.

When folks noticed that I had removed all my comments, they asked why followed by this next question…

How can I remove all my WordPress comments?

  • Review your discussion options located in Settings > Discussion. Unchecking “Allow people to post comments on new articles” will turn the ability to comment off for all future posts.
  • If you want to only turn comments off for individual posts, go to the post’s page, and in the right post sidebar, page to Discussion, and uncheck Allow Comments.
  • For many themes, there are also global commenting settings (Appearance > Customize > Theme Settings > Comments and Trackbacks) to turn comments on or off for your theme.

Once you have your settings in place, how to remove all those old comments on your website comes next. This, too, is easy for you to do yourself.

As with any significant changes you make to your website, always do a thorough backup first.

  1. Go to PHPMyAdmin in your hosting control panel.
  2. Choose your database from the left: wrdp1, for example.
  3. You will see wp_comments on the main page.
  4. Check the box to the left and page down. Select: Empty.
  5. All comments will be deleted from your database.

Now You Can Make Your Decision…

You are now armed with different sides of the story and the info you need to make a decision that works for you. To comment or not to comment; only you know what is best for your website.

And remember that your decision is not in stone and can be reversed or modified at any time.

At your service,

WordPress Consultant Judith
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