Are you getting comments on your website? Are you leaving comments on other websites? You should be!

Let’s talk about online comments generally. What are they, where are they, should you leave them, offer others a chance to leave them, respond to them, and etc.

If you’ve been on the web (and we know you are because you’re reading this), you’ve seen plenty of websites, including ours, filled with blog posts where comments are sought at the end. Not always left, but sought. If you have a WordPress website, the default option is to be able to leave comments on every post and page.

The video below shows how to set up comments in a self-hosted WordPress website. More content and tips after the video.

 

Why is the WordPress default to accept comments? The reason is that the web is a place to be social. So much we used to do offline we now do online. Case in point: People offer opinions and advice; other people respond. If we think on this from an online marketing perspective, we see immediately that commenting and permitting comments on your website, strategically, makes good sense. Good comments add value to the content on your site. They also add good words to your page so that when search engines look at (index) your site, or a particular page on your site, they glean the fact that people are spending time on the page and engaging, and adding value. That’s an indication it’s a relevant page that should show up in search engine results. And so it will be more likely to show up higher in search engine results. In turn, the commenter is able usually to leave a link back to their own website, which may be viewed and visited by someone reading the comments, and will also suggest to search engines that the link back is related to excellent content where all the comments are, potentially offering a boost to the commenter’s website in search results. Everyone wins.

Not all comments are created equal. Comments that simply say “me too” or worse, are inflammatory or rife with typos add no value. They will be disregarded by visitors to the site and may be disregarded by search engines. I believe that a page filled with an abundance of useless comments should expect no love from search engines, and it will certainly distract if not repel visitors.

So what’s a person to do? Well here are some helpful:

Tips About Accepting and Leaving Comments Online

1. Do permit comments on your website.
2. Do solicit comments on your website.
3. Don’t permit comments on every page. Do you really want people commenting about your address or mission statement?
4. Do review and moderate comments before allowing them to post. Correct typographical errors in them even, but don’t change the gist.
5. Don’t allow unadulterated commenting, or commenting without review first. Ever, and even if your website is huge.
6. Don’t allow spam comments.
7. Do respond to comments, whether they are positive or negative.
8. Don’t respond to comments in anger, even if you’re angry.
9. Do remember that you should rarely write anything on the Internet that you wouldn’t want your grandmother and/or mortal enemy to see.
10. Do leave comments on other people’s websites.
11. Do leave information about your own website (such as its address) in your comments on others’ sites.
12. Don’t bother leaving comments on websites that are not relevant to your business or have no traffic, unless I suppose you really have the time on your hands and feel compelled to do so.
13. Don’t leave “me too” comments or comments not on point.
14. Do add value to the conversation, such as a different approach or new idea.
15. Don’t make spam comments. On a page about the marine animals, don’t leave information about your side job as a Canadian viagra purveyor.

Comments anyone? Leave them below.