Should You Have WordPress Comments On or Off?

Should You have Comments on Your WordPress Blog

This is a tale of my thinking process and experience in managing too many websites to count, and the topic of enabling comments on each. My hope is that this will help you decide whether to enable comments on your website.

Over the years, there has been a debate about whether to allow comments on your site. 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 shares my decision-making process for my sites. What tends to bring this up is that folks notice none of my blogs allow site visitors to leave comments.

Comments on or comments off is a decision that must be made on a site-by-site, business-by-business basis. Here are some things to consider as you make your decision.

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 spam. 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 going live on your website. This helps you weed out spam and scams. But to make that work, you must be on top of incoming relevant comments so they go live as quickly as possible. And that takes time—lots of it.
Many users do not take the time to communicate clearly (e.g., typos, all lowercase, or all uppercase). All my blogs are for those who 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 pro bono advice to those who had no intention of ever hiring me took away from the clients who had already placed their trust in me.

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

So that’s what I think; now, let’s go to the Wayback Machine to look at other companies and their decision-making processes for additional perspectives to consider.

Google’s Webmaster Blog

This occurred on January 11, 2019.

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

The Copyblogger Saga

For those who’ve been around a while, Copyblogger’s blog was pretty popular (“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 with the post’s content. 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 were reduced to seven days, and the dates in the comments were not displayed. I get it—they missed the feedback. Feedback, trends, and understanding what their market wants are what have made Copyblogger a successful company.

This reflects the fact that 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.

What works for you?

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

For some, the lack of a comment section may indicate they are less popular. Popularity is built on the discourse, and the comments section can be a primary draw for the site. That takes time.

Comments, ensuing discussions, and the community they create can be at the heart of the website. 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 and the website as a whole.

Test and See What Works for Your Website

You can test which level of commenting works for you, or if no comments will work for you. 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 to monitoring, reviewing, and approving 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 considered how, where, and when you will draw the line regarding the level of participation you personally want to provide? After all, comments should be responded to.

Inevitably, you will have to weigh the pros and cons 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 in Settings > Discussion. Unchecking “Allow people to post comments on new articles” will disable commenting on all future posts.
If you want to turn comments off only for individual posts, go to the post’s page, open the right post sidebar, click Discussion, and uncheck Allow Comments.
For many themes, there are also global commenting settings (Appearance > Customize > Theme Settings > Comments and Trackbacks) that let you turn comments on or off for your theme.

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

As with any significant change to your website, always back up your site first.

Go to phpMyAdmin in your hosting control panel.
Choose your database from the left, for example, “wrdp1”.
You will see wp_comments on the main page.
Check the box to the left and scroll down. Select: Empty.
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, how long to allow commenting, and whether to review first — only you know what is best for your website.

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

At your service,

P.S. It’s 2026, and I still haven’t re-engaged comments.