Wordpress Users

All comments have to approved. Why? Because of spammers. You'll encounter more spammers by far then actual real comments.

I somehow back last winter when I set up stopped all comments.

My site is a very quick downloading shell that routes people to my AW, for Statscounter and GA, and gives the Artist's Statement and Bio. Contact info is everywhere anyway.

I go for speed.

Someone earlier this week said you site should have comments to gain popularity. Not so hot.

We are not massively broadbase marketing. We are generally getting one buyer at a time, targeted marketing.

Trying to make the website popular is really only the dream. Also broad based marketing is not done from the website, but
on FB or Twitter. The website is down a narrower part of the funnel, again not broad based marketing at that point.

I go with no comments. I go with a free security plugin. I just got it and it is late. PM me if you want the name of the plugin.

I am tired and off to bed.

Dave

Dan,

You can install Akismet to filter comments on a Wordpress.org site, and it will save you a lot of time and bother with spamsters.

I don't because it's almost entirely spam. There is a comments plugin that allows you to automatically spam comments that say certain words. I forget what words I put in there, but I know one of them was "SEO" and that stops a lot of it.

Dan in your WP dashboard hover over settings, then click on Discussion. There you can set the comments settings. Under "Before a comment appears" check the box that it has to be manually approved. This will put the comment(s) in a hold pattern (under Comments in Left side) until you sign into your dashboard and physically mark them Approve or Spam. You'll also see a blacklist where you can put in IPs, content, name, etc.

I have code in my functions.php to stop HTML, but if you're not comfortable with coding you can use a plugin to stop it. Just be sure the plugin has good ratings on Wordpress.org and works with your version of WP. Also is it strongly advised to backup your site before installing anything new just in case something should go amiss.

~ Charly

David - speed is one thing but there is also longevity. Google tracks how long people stay on a site also.

David,
The comment from Abbie (I believe it was) about opening comments was partly what generated this question to see what others do. It's complex: one one hand, opening comments invites spam, snarkyness, and more. On the other, moderation or registration restricts it. Why I asked "why."

But then again, I don't think google rates relevance by how many comments are on a blog, but rather how many external links reference the blog - which would be comments elsewhere.

Joel, thanks. Been using a licensed version of Akismet for years.

Charly, thanks. I have comments moderated. I was asking what other people do and why to get a feel for the opinions of the community at large.

Edward, did not know that (time-tracking). But does google know what they are doing there? In other words, couldn't stay-times also be lengthened by writing longer articles or offering more pictures to look at?

It depends on how much traffic you get and how much time you have.

Comments need moderation. Lots of comments need lots of moderation.

Comments are a weak link in your site's site's security. Letting user's create accounts is an even worse risk because most people use poor passwords and the common wordpress admin knows little about locking down their site.

Comments are abuse magnets. They're a favorite venue of spammers and wacko's with agendas. With comments enabled you will get both of these, no matter how hard you try to keep them out.

I've disabled comments for all the above reasons. People who are truly interested in commenting on my work or blog entries have no problem using my contact form.

My comments are all spam. Not good spammers either - why spam a blog that doesn't get read?

Al,

Contrary to the advice given in another thread, I'm thinking you're right. I just don't see the benefits SEO wise. When you're linked to by others, yea... that's beneficial. But comments themselves just carry no weight.

On the other side of the coin is the spam itself. I'm sure search engines are aware of spam. If it is not culled out quickly and completely, I could see where a search engine might classify a wordpress site to be a source of spam and demote it.

David - speed is one thing but there is also longevity. Google tracks how long people stay on a site also.

Ed,

I have come to believe in very targeted marketing. Emails to who I think will be interested buyers. What Google does with that does not
matter to me. When those buyers see my emails first they see a subject line that is something they need in their businesses. And they see
my name. If at any time they want to know that I exist or have integrity, they can then Google me, not my website, they will find my Twitter,
FB, LInkedin, G+ accounts. They will see in my literature that I have a fulfillment center or company behind me, Pixels. They can see all
of that if they need to, but it will not be through time on my site.

What I am saying there is a feedback loop of my existence elsewhere that matters more and that time as Google measures it is less than what
any interested clients would actually invest in knowing about me.

I also think my potential clients are more than astute enough to never give a rat's blank about anyone else's comments. In fact it would be a distracting waste of our time, theirs and mine.

Addition: huge percentages of people see things first on smartphones. You need speed. You are more likely to lose someone over speed issues
than anything else. People are not looking for any of us. We are going to them. If we can not produce a working website in a download time under 2 seconds they will not wait. Massive percentages after that do not wait as the clock ticks.

Dave

Dan,

Abbie was publishing a newsletter. She was doing what she hoped would be broad based marketing.
That is why her website ranking mattered to her.

She also needed the interaction of comments to a greater degree. She could market those comments.

Dave