How To Quickly And Easily Delete All Comments In WordPress
Managing comments on WordPress can be an arduous task for site owners. On one hand, it’s always rewarding to see that others are giving feedback on your blog posts. But on the other hand, you may end up spending a lot of time moderating new comments and dealing with spammers who are keen to use your comment section as a parking lot for their spam-filled links.
On top of that, other bloggers may only comment on your blog posts to acquire nofollow backlinks to their own blog sites. While this isn’t inherently a problem, commenters ought to bring meaningful contributions that add value to your content. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case and the use of this practice should be monitored, as well.
The decision to keep or delete your comment section is a complicated one. This blog post will offer insight into the potential benefits and risks, such as SEO and rankings, when it comes to eliminating or keeping your comment section. Find out if comments are still relevant and learn the steps to optimize this feature for SEO purposes.
Let’s get started!
What are WordPress comments?
If you’re new to WordPress, you might be wondering what WordPress comments are to begin with.
Comments can be posted by your readers in the special comment section at the end of your blog posts. Comments are a great way to engage with your readers and start a conversation about your content. They also allow you to get feedback from your readers and get to know them better.
Want to give your two cents on a post or page? Just scroll down and leave your comment in the comments section. Leave an email address and website link if you want, and then hit Send. Your comment will pop up right at the bottom of the post or page with all the other comments.
What are the benefits of a comment section on your WordPress blog?
Having a comment section on your WordPress blog can be a great way to connect with your readers and get feedback on your posts. A comment section can also help to promote discussion and debate on your blog, which can make your content more engaging and interesting. Additionally, a comment section can help to build a sense of community around your blog.
How do comments on your blog improve your SEO?
If you’re a blogger, you know that one of the most important things you can do to improve your blog’s SEO is to get people to comment on your posts.
But how exactly do comments help your SEO?
Well, for one thing, comments show Google that your content is being engaging and that people are talking about it. This helps Google to rank your content higher in the search results. In addition, when people leave comments on your blog, they’re also likely to share your content on social media, which can help to drive even more traffic to your WordPress website.
So if you’re looking to boost your blog’s SEO, start by encourage people to leave comments on your WordPress posts. You may be surprised at how quickly your traffic starts to increase.
When do comments harm your blog’s SEO?
While all of these forms of engagement are good for your blog’s SEO, comments can sometimes do more harm than good. For example:
Spam comments: Spam comments, for example, can hurt your blog’s SEO by adding irrelevant and low-quality links to your site. If you have a lot of comment spam, it can also send signals to search engines that your WordPress site is of low quality.
Comment swapping: I also see a lot of bloggers swapping comments in FB groups. While it’s not inherently bad, it can be a problem when folks keep commenting within the same group of bloggers all the time. Google doesn’t like that, so your blog won’t get any ranking boosts or anything.
Comments can help give your blog posts the boost they need or getting a conversation going. But when someone leaves a short comment like “Thanks, great tips,” it doesn’t usually do much to help you grow. I’ve heard of some people’s DA and DR (domain authority and domain rank) going down the toilet after being involved in excessive comment swapping for a while.
Site speed: A comment section takes extra time to load, so if your page speed is suffering, consider closing down your comments section. It’s an easy way to get your website loading up faster.
However, f you’re having issues with slow loading times, don’t disable your comment area just yet. Maybe you can solve it with the help of a plugin. A Comment Lazy Load plugin might do the trick and optimize the user experience of your pages.
Should you delete the comment area on your WordPress blog?
Blog comments can be a great method to engage with your readers and start a dialogue about your posts. However, they can also be a source of spam and negativity. So should you delete the comments on your WordPress blog?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. It all depends on your blog and your goals for it.
If you’re trying to build a community around your blog, then comments are the perfect and easiest way to do that. But if you’re just trying to share your thoughts and don’t care about comments, then you there’s no reason to keep your comment section going.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether or not to delete the comments on your blog. Just think about what you want to achieve with your blog and make the decision that’s right for you.
Why you should never delete all comments in WordPress
If you delete comments from your blog posts, there’s a real chance that you could mess up your ranking on Google. Comments can be seen as part of the content and play into where Google puts it in its search rankings. And that means more traffic for your page – so don’t go deleting willy nilly!
If you don’t want your comment section to stay active, I’d just suggest closing it instead of deleting old comments. That way, you won’t have any new comments coming in, but you won’t risk losing your existing rankings.
4 different methods to disable comments on your WordPress blog
There are a few different ways to close your comment area on WordPress that don’t require any technical knowledge to implement:
- On single WordPress posts;
- Large number of comments on multiple posts;
- On all posts;
- Delete all published comments on all posts (plugin method).
Disable comments on single posts
You might want to disable comments on certain posts or pages for a variety of reasons. Maybe you don’t want people to comment on a sensitive topic, or maybe you don’t want to deal with spam comments.
Whatever the reason, it’s easy to disable comments on individual posts in WordPress.
When you use this method, comments that are already published will stay visible on your website. You’re only disabling future comments this way. If you disable comments, the ones that have already been published will stay put. That means the ones that people have already left won’t be deleted or anything like that. You’re just stopping any future visitors from leaving messages on your site.
If you want to delete existing comments as well, you can go to:
- Your WordPress dashboard;
- Go to Comments;
- Select the comment you want to delete;
- Click on the drop-down menu and select Move to Trash.
Disable the comments section on multiple posts
If you want to shut off the commenting sections on multiple posts:
- Head to your WP dashboard;
- Click on Posts and then All Posts;
- Check the boxes next to the posts where you wanna turn off comments;
- Move the drop-down menu from Bulk actions over to Edit and hit Apply;
- Choose Do Not Allow within the Comments drop-down menu;
- Hit Update.
Disable comments on all posts
If you want to disable comments on all future posts or pages, you can go to your Discussion settings and uncheck the “allow comments” box. This will prevent comments from being posted on any new articles or pages.
Delete all published comments on all posts in WordPress with a plugin
If you want to disable all post comments, including those that have already been published, you can install a plugin that deletes all comments of WordPress at once, like the WP Bulk Delete plugin. This plugin does exactly what it sounds like – it allows you to delete multiple comments in one go.
Here’s how to use it:
1. Download the WP Bulk Delete plugin;
2. In your WordPress dashboard, head on over to WP Bulk Delete in the left-hand menu;
3. Hit the Delete Comments button you see;
4. Pick the type of comments you want deleted;
5. Finally, click on the Delete Comments button again and *poof* – say bye to all your comments!
And that’s it! The plugin will delete all the selected comments from your WordPress.
But again, this is an option you should be really careful with. This is an irreversible action that can have many consequenses to the your blog’s rankings. At least make sure to make a full backup of your website before deleting all your comments.
How to avoid spam comments on a WordPress blog?
If you’re running a WordPress blog, chances are you’ve had to deal with spam comments and/or inappropriate comments at some point. Spam comments are those pesky, unwanted comments that show up on your blog posts, usually with links to shady websites or ads. They’re frustrating, and they can be tough to get rid of.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to avoid spam comments on your WordPress blog.
- Specific plugins that will help you filter out spam comments. There are a few different plugins to choose from, so you’ll need to do some research to find one that works well for you. I prefer AntiSpam Bee.
- Moderate all comments before they’re published on your blog. This means that you should review any pending comments left on your blog posts or other kind of content and make sure they are appropriate and fit within your blog’s guidelines. If necessary, you can delete those unapproved comments or edit them for clarity and accuracy. Additionally, you may want to consider disabling certain words such as profanity or hate speech to avoid offensive comments.
Wrapping things up
In conclusion, there are both pros and cons to having an active comment section on your blog. Ultimately it’s up to you to decide which is the best course of action for your website.
However, if you do decide to keep the comment area open, make sure you have implemented appropriate measures such as moderation and plugins that can weed out any potential spam comments. This will ensure that the discussion remains focused and productive.
