Comments may improve a blog in a variety of ways. They turn a monologue into a conversation and foster community. Furthermore, since search engines index comments, they may provide a modest boost to SEO. So, why would anybody want to block WordPress comments?
Mostly because comments may be self-promotional, spammy, and even unpleasant at times. Furthermore, moderating comments might consume your valuable time.
However, it is also true that a post devoid of comments seems completed, and as a result, many websites welcome comments with open arms.
There are both good and negative reasons to deactivate comments in WordPress.
Some websites, particularly publications like CNN and Reuters, get a flood of comments. They’ve solved the volume issue by moving comments to social media sites. This may also work in your advantage in a variety of ways — it removes contentious comments from your blog and has no direct influence on it. Furthermore, social media is partially self-regulating and may reduce incorrect remarks on its own.
Another reason to disable comments is to reduce load times. Not to mention that each remark necessitates another database ask/request, which takes time and adds up. That being said, before you go too far and fully deactivate comments in WordPress for performance concerns, investigate the notion of lazy loading for your comments area.
Also, if comments are an essential element of your site, you may be aware that there are a variety of plugins available to enhance your WordPress comments area.
Finally, if your site receives a lot of comments, creating a WordPress forum to boost reader engagement is a smart option.
Using the regular dashboard settings, disable comments in WordPress.
WordPress by default allows comments on all posts but blocks them on all pages. You may hide / allow comments fully (site-wide) or selectively on certain articles and pages. You may also control comments in a variety of ways by utilising the settings on the Settings page.
To begin controlling comments, go to Settings > Discussion in your WordPress Dashboard.
- To prevent future comments on future articles (and pages):
Uncheck the box that says “enable people to leave comments on articles.” Pingbacks and trackbacks may also be disabled here. This will completely disable comments and pings on all future articles on your site. (By default, pages are disabled.)
Disable comments on future WordPress articles.
If you want to allow comments on certain posts or articles, change the settings under Discussions on the relevant post or page. (More on it later.)
- To halt all comments on all published articles (or pages), do the following:
Simply disabling comments, as previously noted, will not halt the flow of comments on existing articles and pages. To delete all existing comments, go to your Dashboard > Comments.
Select the comments you wish to delete, then click Bulk Actions, then “Move to Trash,” and finally click the Apply button.
- To block comments on many articles (or pages) at once, use the following method:
Let’s go to the All Posts area this time. Choose all of the posts for which you want to remove comments. After that, go to Bulk Actions > Edit > Apply. A new Bulk Edit option will appear, from which you may choose the Do Not Allow option for comments.
Because that is the default option for post display in the All Posts page, you will be limited to picking from 20 posts at a time. Change the Screen Options to show a larger number on each screen.
- Individually halting comments on existing posts:
Select the desired post from the list of All Posts and then click Edit Post. There is a Discussion heading underneath the writing area. If you don’t see it, enable “Discussion” under “Screen Options.” Uncheck “Allow comments” in the Discussion box.
You may also get the similar effect by using Quick Edit on individual postings.
- To deactivate comments on media files, do the following:
We’re not done yet, since the postings may still get comments on the media assets.
An attachment file is produced when you add a picture to your post. Even if you deactivate comments on the relevant post, this file will continue to receive them. To deactivate comments for such attachments in WordPress, go to Media Library, pick the media file, and then click Edit.
You’ll see a “Discussion” box similar to the one in the text editor for posts, where you may deactivate comments.
It is not possible to mass change media files in WordPress using settings, but you may do it by adding some code to your theme file.
- In addition to removing comments entirely, you may have additional control over comments by altering settings in the Settings > Discussion panel. Let’s take a brief glance at the various options:
- Requiring a moderator’s approval before publishing a comment: This not only detects bots and spam, but it also helps to prevent comments from showing on your site’s frontend immediately away. It will display in your dashboard’s comments queue, where you must deal with it.
- Blacklisting IP addresses, usernames, or email addresses: blacklist known offenders, and even a partial match to the list will result in a block. You can also add a line of code to your.htaccess file to block known malicious IP addresses.
- Requiring the user to sign up: Can reduce both spam and the number of comments.
- Authors of approved comments: By authorising comment writers, you may save time. Subsequent comments will be simply accepted.
- Final thoughts on past articles: Set the number of days after which comments will no longer be accepted. Spammers tend to target older postings, thus deleting comments will reduce spam.
- Limiting links: This may deter spammers from including as many links as possible in their comments.
- Receive notifications when you receive comments: You can respond quickly to unwelcome remarks if you stay up to date on fresh ones.
Disabling comments using plugins
Aside from the basic WordPress settings, you can also utilise plugins to make the task simpler and provide you with more “controlled” control over comments. Here’s who’s who in this game:
From the plugin’s website:
[…] enables administrators to block comments on any post type (posts, pages, attachments, etc.) worldwide, so that these settings cannot be changed for individual postings. All comment-related fields are likewise removed from the edit and quick-edit displays. […] Additionally, comment-related things on the Dashboard, Widgets, Admin Menu, and Admin Bar may be deleted.
If you don’t want any comments on your site, this is a great plugin to use. It’s a “set it and forget it” kind of solution.
WP Bruiser and Akismet are two more excellent spam comment plugins.
To summarise, smaller websites can easily control comments by adjusting WordPress settings or using a simple plugin. Third-party solutions such as Disqus or others like are often used by content-heavy websites.
Overall, whether to welcome or disable comments is a matter of personal decision, evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of comments on your site. What are your thoughts? Do you want to deactivate WordPress comments? And if so, what’s the reasoning?