Why You Should Add A Comment Box To Website
You can have the nicest, cleanest visually appealing website that you can possibly create, but it means nothing if you can’t get ranked and generate traffic.
As we all know, valuable content is the essence to creating great website traffic and high rankings. But how do you keep your highly ranked pages staying high? I’ll let you in on a top secret ranking tip.
Engage your readers and generate comments.
It can sometimes be pretty hard to keep generating posts to keep your website highly ranked. Some of us have multiple websites, some have other work alternatives and some people find content ideas are hard to come by.
By engaging your readers and prompting a response from them will keep your website ranked exactly where you’d like it, and here’s why.
Comments are content! That’s the secret.
So if you haven’t found the time to add posts in a month or so, comments added to your posts as part of your readers discussion will keep you on page 1 of Google.
Your readers are effectively adding content for you. Your job is to reply to these comments that are being submitted. Don’t just give 2-3 word ‘thank you‘ answers. Write with intent and give answers or solutions to questions that may have been asked.
So now you know why you should add a comment box to website posts, let’s get into how you get comments.
How Do I Get Comments?
The easiest way to gain comments is to ask for them! Like I’m asking you to do now. If you like this article, please make comment below. You may dislike this article and think it’s total rubbish, let me know what you think. If you have any other great ideas in relation to comments, let me and my readers know about it.
You could just write an article, publish it and assume it will rank. Or you can boost it by asking for comments at the bottom of the post. As I mentioned, this is a great way for your posts to be regularly updated. The best part is, it’s your readers that are helping you out.
How To Add A Comment Box To Your Website?
WordPress by default will have comments turned on. Depending on your theme, you may have different options for your comment box area.
If for some reason you do not see comments at the bottom of your posts, click ‘Screen Options’ in the top right hand corner of your post editor. This will open up like so:
Make sure the ‘Discussion’ box is ticked. Your post editor will now show the options for discussion when you scroll to the bottom. Here you’ll see 2 tick boxes. Make sure the ‘Allow Comments box is ticked’. I’d also keep the ‘Allow trackbacks and pingbacks on this page’ ticked. These are basically for comments to be shared and linked between your website, and the website of your reader that makes the comment.
WPBeginner has a much better explanation about this here.
There are also many plugin options for adding a comment box, some of these also integrate with social media.
Be Careful of Spam
As we know, spam is a blight on the internet. So many dodgy folk out there trying to get backlinks from our websites. Even though WordPress comes with Akismet installed, I’d advise you to regularly check you spam folder. You may find a legitimate comment in there which you can safely click ‘not spam’. This will then be moved to the ‘Pending’ folder. Any other comments can just be deleted.
Conclusion
I hope you can now see the power of comments and how they can boost your ranking with minimal input from you. The more you engage your readers the more comments you will generate. This in turn allows you to comment back, creating more content which Google likes.
So please give me your thoughts. Let me know why you do or don’t like comments. Have you seen a spike in a particular post because of comments? Maybe you see comments a waste of time or they don’t suit you website. Leave a comment below and help me rank this page!
Your Site is awesome
great articles and i love the welcome video
what theme is this ?
Thanks for the kind words Tim. My theme is known as Divi, click on the link and you’ll be taken to my tutorial on how to use it. It is an awesome theme and do flexible. Cheers
Nigel,
Great information and comprehensive.
Thanks for posting this article, I never give much thought to trackbacks or pings, maybe because I really didn’t understand the concept.
Joe
Thanks Joe. Your not Robinson Crusoe there. Many people don’t understand what they are. I think that there’s so much to learn in regards to creating a website, that many things are overlooked. Especially if they are a little complicated to comprehend.
Hey Nigel,
Really true words on watching out for spam. The sytems don’t catch everthing. Diligence is key.
Matt
That’s correct Matt, Akismet will filter the majority of your spam comments but look out for the crap that does get through. Just be mindful that a genuine comment may also get put in the spam box. Cheers
Thanks for your feedback Chris. I don’t think a lot of people no much about the trackbacks and pingbacks. It’s an interesting one and can vary depending upon what type of website you have, and whether you actually want others linking back to your posts and comments. It can also be a little confusing to get your head around. I thought WPBeginner had a great explanation of it, hence the link to them. Cheers
Akismet has a funny name, but it’s invaluable. Any blog that has any real exposure gets flooded with robot comments which ruin the experience for the user and drag your site down in terms of traffic performance.
Very true Paul. Most of us use the free version of Akismet and this still removes over 90% of spam comments. I know this as I created my first website 2 years ago without Akismet and couldn’t believe the crap that was being sent through. I gave up the website, checked it a month later and had over 500 spam comments! Akismet, as you say, odd name but works a treat.