Interactive blogs are a great way to engage with users and drive traffic to your website. This is a popular choice with website owners and WordPress blogs are hugely popular. In fact, 50,000 WordPress websites are launched on a daily basis, with 52.2 million new posts added on a monthly basis according to a report provided by createablognow.com. Comments are also a massively popular way to interact with your website users, with 49.9 million new comments posted each month.
So what exactly can you get out of the Comments feature in WordPress?
You will probably have seen a Comments feature on practically every website you have visited and it is also commonly used in social media platforms such as Facebook. Comments in WordPress allows a user to provide their own thoughts and opinions, ask questions and start discussions with other users. Another way to use it is for leaving feedback to the author of a post. Visit the WordPress.com website to get a full run down of how to get the most out of the Comments feature.
By allowing users to open dialogue with others, you are increasing the likelihood of repeat visits as well as bringing up more results in search engines.
Regulating Comments
Another great option that WordPress offers is the ability to monitor the comments that people add to your posts. There is nothing worse than finding that an angry keyboard warrior has trolled on your site (i.e. left inappropriate comments that can cause you all kinds of trouble). Through the use of filters for language and content you can ensure that comments of this nature don’t make it onto your site without any additional work on your part.
If you want to be really in control of the comments, then you can also set it up so that comments require approval before being published. Using this functionality is a small piece of work that can save you from the risk of unwanted comments that tarnish the reputation of your business.
How to access and manage Comments
From the menu sidebar you simply need to select the Comments option and all comments on your site will be displayed. You can then filter the list to show Pending, Approved, Marked as Spam or Trash so it is easy to manage your comments.
By hovering over each row in the list of Comments, you can select from a number of actions:
Unapprove/Approve – Quite self explanatory but this is where you can control whether the comment makes it onto your site. You can change a comment marked as disapproved to later approve it if you change your mind.
Reply – It is a good idea to respond to users, particularly if they are asking questions or looking for further information. Use the reply option to reply to any of the comments that users have posted.
Quick Edit – This allows you to make some basic changes such as commenter’s name, email, URL or the comment itself. This is another key feature in regulating the comments.
Edit – In addition to the actions listed under Quick Edit, this option also allows you to mark as Approved, Pending or Spam and also to change the Date and Time if you choose to.
Spam – Helps you to quickly get rid of nuisance comments.
Trash – Clear it from your comments list by moving it into Trash. You can always restore if you do it in error or you can delete it permanently.