Is allowing comments a good idea?
-
One (in fact a couple) of my sites is built using Wordpress so I could take advantage of things like Related Posts widgets, etc. However, the layout and navigation of the site is set up more like a traditional website rather than a blog and from the beginning I removed the comment box from the template.
I am wondering now whether allowing comments would actually be a good idea for SEO, or if I should leave it as it is. The content of the site doesn't really offer opinions (aside from a few product reviews) so to my mind comments dont really fit.
Thoughts or opinions readily welcomed...
-
My content is pretty uncontroversial, so hopefully allowing comments will just allow a bit of useful discussion to happen on each page (fingers crossed...)
Being spammed to death was/is one of my main concerns. I will of course use spam filters but, as EGOL suggests, this will still require moderation and therefore my time (which is already in short supply...)
I think I will give it a try and see how things go. Thanks for your input guys
-
Phooey... I knew that this would happen as soon as I tried to pick a mellow topic.
-
LOL...I do blog about kittens sometimes. And this is still a problem!
-
I think comments are great as long as you have a thick enough skin.
This made me laugh... Thanks! It's very true!
-
From an SEO perspective and from a webmaster's perspective I would love to have comments on my website and blog. I would enjoy seeing the search engines get all of that content and I would enjoy the community of friends that would develop around the topics that I publish.
However, I don't have comments turned on for the following reasons:
-
Comment spammers would stink up my site with linkdrops, product mentions, beggings and trollings. I know that there is software to guard aginst these but some will still get through and it will make your site a target for the underworld of the web. The more successful your blog becomes the bigger this problem gets and it can easily get to a point where you can't scale it with enjoyment or profit.
-
A blog or a website on almost any topic will require a certain amount of moderation as there will be a small number of errors, petty disagreement, and other problems that require attention. Again the busier your blog the greater these minor problems become. Volunteer moderators could help a lot with these problems.
-
Saved for last is the one that in my opinion can be the greatest problem - people who have a personal jihad against the topic or the industry that you cover. If you blog is about kittens this will probably not be too big of a problem, however, if it is about one of the more controversial political, social, environmental or religious issues your blog, email, telephone and more could be placed under heavy attack. If you like this type of challenge it could be a great way to get links and traffic - it might scale profitably. But if you don't care for this type of engagement you better turn the comments - you will still get some of this but it will be at a much lower level.
-
-
I think comments are great as long as you have a thick enough skin.
If you use comments be sure to have Askimet installed. It works well to combat a good amount of spam.
Also make sure that you have it set so that you have to approve each comment. This is where the thick skin comes in. I have some pages where I have 10 comments singing the praises of my article and then I get a comment that says, "What on earth are you talking about? You don't have a clue about this subject". Those don't get published.
Each of the comments you get adds keywords to your content, so this is good.
If you find that you are spending too much time moderating comments and you're not enjoying it then you can always turn comments off afterwards.
-
most of the time comments are good if you are willing to moderate them as it draws users into your site more by providing a means for interaction.
It really depends on the purpose of your website: if it was an informational site or review site then comments would be great. If it was a business's website then comments may not be a good idea as they may take off the professional edge unless they are constrained to a blog section.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Embedded twitter post is good for https://www.fitness-china.com/hip-thrust-machine seo
We have short video posts on twitter. Embedded twitter post is good for https://www.fitness-china.com/hip-thrust-machine SEO?
On-Page Optimization | | ahislop5740 -
Good CTAs for Meta-Descriptions: Direct, Indirect, Narrow, Broad?
It is no secret that good meta descriptions should be written to incite the searcher to click on the result without misleading them. Time and again I read that there are measurable effects by including "strong" CTAs (calls to action). What constitutes a call to action seems by some to be taken really narrow (i.e. "Click here to learn more!" - a very specific action that is spelled out) and by others rather broadly ("... Offer available till December 31" - only implicit, the action [buying/securing] not even mentioned). I now wondered: Many "guides" still recommend rather blunt calls like "Click here", "Read more", "Discover how". Personally I find those really unattractive and often a waste of space. However, I am not the benchmark and favour the informational side perhaps a little too strongly. Do those direct but general CTAs really work well in every case* or should one be more elaborate/indirect? I am looking forward of hearing your experience/opinion! Nico Yes, of course it is "test, test, test" and to some degree each case is different; looking for general patterns, though 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | netzkern_AG0 -
How to organise subpages for good SEO content without duplicate text?
We are working on many subpages for our services. We have original content for each page however there are few text which we need to always duplicate like: Contact sales window, why to choose us window, supported files etc. What's the best way to do this so it's not consider as duplicated text. Should we redirected it or add it as a picture and always change name of the picture? Thank you Lukas
On-Page Optimization | | Lukas-ST0 -
Is .PW domain is good for SEO?
I want to register .PW domain which has recently got live to register. I am in doubt should it is good for SEO or not.
On-Page Optimization | | semmediapvtltd0 -
Is it good to have a subdomain with keyword?
Hi, I want to ask do you thing that it is good and necessary to have a subdomain with a keyword in it when the domain doesn't include it? f.e. you have a website named domain.com but there is no keyword in it. And if you add subdomain keyword.domain.com will this bring any benefit?
On-Page Optimization | | vladokan0 -
Are hyphens not a good thing in page titles?
I am pretty sure hyphens are looked at as spaces no matter what programming language you are using for text purposes. The On-page Report Card is not counting them as spaces in the page title, therefore, we're not getting the grade for having the keyword in the page title because it's divided by hyphens. Is this a fix that needs to be implemented into the SEOmoz app or should I not have hyphens in the title or does it really not matter? Up for discussion! Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | cyberlicious0 -
Content ideas for different sections of a news website?
A news website I'm working on has pages for various sectors, much like any major news site (in this case for example - defence, energy, trade & finance etc.). I've been asked to add content of 150 words or more to each sector, containing keywords we're targeting. I can see the value of this SEO-wise but can't see how we can write anything that adds value for the user. I don't want to add some rubbish for the sake of keywords, I want the information to be useful.The best idea I can come up with is to write an overview of the challenges and topics making the news in each sector, perhaps a bit of historical detail - but I don’t think this will add much value from a user-perspective, and it's not something where there will be the resources available to update often (or to provide some 'best on the web' type info). Any other ideas? Or do you think my idea is a great one? ;-)The pages in question are like the majority of news pages; each item with a synopsis and the usual extra things like a poll and 'most read' box. I've looked at other news sites and can't see one that has any extra content in the way we require.Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Alex-Harford0 -
Comment Plugin
We are set to relaunch our site on wordpress and will be creating a traditional blog section in the process. With doing so, we want to allow commenting on our blog; however, we are trying to find the best to accomplish our main goals of 1) increasing SEO and 2) creating a conversation hub that will refresh on page content I have looked toward the Facebook comment plugin; however, it doesnt add to the pages code (essentially seems that all comment posts are hidden in javascript). This does little to accomplish our goal of refreshing page content, but it does allow users an easy and seamless way to add to the conversation is a useful tool to get a mention on social channels. The thing we do like about more traditional plugins is 1) the ability to post the comment to the html so we can increase the refresh rate of page content and 2) ability to block IPs since we will likely allow comments to be open instead of requiring approval first (we want ppl to add to the conversation in real time to motivate more back and forth) so, with all that said, just looking to get opinions on the best comment plugins available to achieve our main goals of increasing our content SEO and refreshing page content by allowing seamless, user friendly commenting features.
On-Page Optimization | | GreenDot0