Hi there! My name is Michael. For quite a while now, I’ve been running my own social media marketing for small businesses and bloggers, and I also blog for myself. I hope to pitch something to you today that will take a minute of your time but could significantly change your time on the blog. Do you require blog comments on your WordPress blog? One of the most crucial things you can offer is allowing blog comments, because it’s the one option that can change everything about blogging and managing the blog.

Blog comments are basically the notes posted by people at the bottom of a blog post. Blog comments allow readers to respond, give their two cents, inquire, and so on. WordPress blogs either allow comments or don’t. By doing either, you know how people engage with your blog in general.

Reasons You’d Want Comments

There are many reasons you’d want comments on your WordPress blog.

1. Builds Community: When someone spends the time to comment, it draws others in to comment and fosters conversation, and people are talking.

2. Better Engagement: Critique and Point of View: Even if you thought of something and someone says it in the comments, or someone points something out to you that can help your work, take these suggestions or opinions and do something with them to make yourself a better blogger.

Increased Credibility and Authority: A blog that has a comment section and reasonable debate or polite discourse makes your blog appear as if it’s been a work in progress. It makes it less of a spam blog and more of a legitimate one, boosting authority as visitors acknowledge you’ve taken the time to respond to their concerns.

Increased Social Proof:

But there are drawbacks to comment sections as well:

1. Spam and Trolls—this is likely the worst one of all. Comment spam—like so many things on the internet—comes in overwhelming amounts. Many a blog is overtaken with spammy comments of links and unwanted information. In addition, there are times when trolls try to leave nasty comments in direct opposition to what is usually a nice fray of discussion on your blog.

2. Time Consumed to Moderate. Exposure to Commenters: By simply opening a comments section, you expose yourself. Whether the comments are negative, positive, or neutral, people have something to say about your writing. Unfortunately, at times, people lash out at you for no reason out of anger and frustration.

Security issues. Allowing comments on your website opens it up to security issues. Many hackers either leave a comment on blog posts with malicious links or hack your site simply through the open access. Therefore, you must ensure that your WordPress site has regular updates and security plugins.

Tips for Commenting If You Do: If you decide to enable commenting, here’s the best way to make the commenting experience the best it can be:

Comment policy: Make sure your settings in your WordPress blog are configured that all comments need approval before going live. This prevents spam and other unwanted content from slipping through.

Anti-spam plugins. There are plugins, like Akismet, that automatically based on your history send spam to trash so you don’t have to do it.

Comment policy: Author Comment Response Expectations. Teach your readers what you expect from them and what you will and will not offer in return to foster a more respectful relationship.

Comment Response Acknowledgement. Establish blogging karma and respond to comments. When someone takes the time out of their day to leave a comment—for any reason—you should respond to their concern—you got their time and opinion, so you owe them your time and response; it fosters community through reciprocity.

Consistent Site Maintenance. Keep your site updated and WordPress and plugins frequently updated to avoid commenting security issues.

Ultimately, whether you want comments on your blog or not is a decision based on your goals for the site and your available maintenance time. Comments are excellent for creating a sense of community and engagement among readers. They also add authority to a site and help with SEO. On the other hand, if spam and critical comments concern you—and you won’t have the time to manage a comments section properly—you either want to forgo comments altogether or use a third-party commenting system that does the monitoring for you.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. As someone who is a social media marketer and blogger, if you’re able to navigate the potential negatives of having comments, I recommend allowing them on your WordPress blog as a great way to connect with the community and have direct access to your audience—just be sure you’re equipped with staff and moderation rules to maintain a safe and clean comment section.

Thanks for reading! I hope this post has answered your questions about enabling comments on your WordPress blog. Whatever you decide, make sure it’s what’s best for you and your audience. Happy blogging, and let’s get in touch!