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
-
Is it good idea to use special characters in Meta Tags?
Hello Experts, Is it good idea to add special characters while writing meta title and descriptions? Characters such as $ # Check Marks % If yes, will it help increase the CTR of page? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | jhakasseo0 -
What are good tests to propose different SEO agencies when you're trying to vet them?
We are trying to narrow down our SEO agency list and I was told to propose 5 different tests. I'm not sure where to start. I also want these tests to help me understand what these companies can do for mine.
On-Page Optimization | | NBJ_SM0 -
Using Hidden Text Behind the Logo as H1 is good seo practice?
Hello Experts, For my website if I use use logo as h1 for homepage but that logo will not be actually h1 but hidden text ( text is my brand name or website name) behind will be h1 so it is okay to use in this way? Using hidden text as H1 is fine as per google? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | pragnesh96390 -
Disabling auto-loading of Disqus Comments
We use Disqus for our comments. However, one of the issues we notice from time to time is that it takes some time to load. So we were thinking of using the Disqus Conditional Load plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/disqus-conditional-load/) so that only readers who are interested in comments can click on a "View Comments" button to load the comments. However, I wanted to know if disabling the auto loading of comments is a good idea from an SEO point of view. On one hand, it should reduce the page load times which should help, but just want to know if there are any issues I should be aware of before using the plugin.
On-Page Optimization | | Gautam0 -
Removing text from Homepage - Bad idea?
Hi Mozzers, I've just read this great article: http://moz.com/ugc/how-to-build-a-great-online-fashion-brand-34-things-that-really-amazing-fashion-retailers-do I'm working with my wife on a small (hopefully, growing) fashion website www.vintageeheirloom.com One of the points was not to directly sell on the homepage, rather draw customers into different areas of the site. Seems good advice and it's followed by many big brands online. As a small company, doing fairly well for some targeted keywords, do you think it would be a good or bad idea for me to remove most, or all of the text on my homepage. The main emphasis of our site is vintage Chanel and using the tool nTopic I score 99% relevancy for 'Vintage Chanel'. Removing would certainly affect this. Obviously I could amend my Vintage Chanel shopping category to include all this. I'd be grateful if you have any thoughts / similar experience. Thanks ! Kevin
On-Page Optimization | | well-its-1-louder0 -
Same pdf attachments placed on more websites good for seo?
Hi I would like to ask if it is duplicate content if I place on my website article with pdf attachment-the same pdf attachment is placed on more websites. Worldwide company made article (short article and some photos) with special offer in pdf, this pdf file is placed on more sites. How google handle with this file? Can google read text inside?
On-Page Optimization | | joeko0 -
Footers... Good or Bad?
I know in the past footers have been seen as a bad idea. I need to get up to date. Does having footer links that point to your own site with anchor texts keywords create problems? or is it safe to have? Will it do anything to our google rankings? Is it going to penalize us? As well, how many is acceptable, do I want all 77 links or have 15 with sub-categories?
On-Page Optimization | | HCGDiet0 -
Is it good to have dashes in url's
When using keywords in url's for internal pages, isn't it a good idea to use dashes or underscores in the url between the keywords?
On-Page Optimization | | BradBorst0