Comments in WordPress are an inseparable element of this CMS. Contrary to appearances, despite the boom in discussions in social media, traditional comments are still widely used on blogs or on some websites, where expressing an opinion, asking a question or simply sharing thoughts is important.

Comments in WordPress can be easily moderated, so there is no fear that spam or, for example, inappropriate user discussions will remain on the site. They can be a great starting point for the development of a high-quality website, where the recipient’s voice is important.

Why is it worth having comments enabled in WordPress?

Although there is no problem in disabling comments, it is worth not doing so for several important reasons:

• thanks to comments, we allow interaction with readers – opinions are exchanged between the authors and recipients of the content, and it also extends the time spent on the website – both by people participating in the discussion and the readers of the comments themselves;
• increasing engagement – appropriate moderation and encouragement to discuss allows you to attract more people;
• building a community – comments enable the exchange of experiences directly between content recipients and shift attention from social media to the blog;
• improving SEO – an active comments section can have a positive impact on the position of the page in search results.

Negative aspects of enabled comments

Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages of enabled comments – in addition to critical discussions – there is also potential spam. To prevent this, we recommend using plugins that will limit the number of unwanted comments or using the reCAPTCHA system. In addition, we can use so-called prohibited values. This is simply a blacklist of words that we can create ourselves and save in the discussion settings.

Comment settings in WordPress

Comment options can be found in the Dashboard in the Settings > Discussion section. We can decide about pingbacks and trackbacks, as well as commenting on new posts. We are also able to specify what data the commenter should provide, whether they must be registered and logged in to be able to, for example, comment.

In this section, we will also specify the basics of moderation and notifications about new comments. In a word, it is our small discussion command center.

It is definitely worth considering the possibility of commenting on posts in WordPress. Of course, then you should ensure that the comments that appear are not spam and encourage users to engage in discussions as much as possible. However, this is work that will increase the engagement of our readers.