How to Increase Blog Comments on Your WordPress Blog

Creating an attractive website with informative content is not enough anymore. Engaging your visitors and creating an online community is another way of marketing your site. Fortunately, almost every WordPress theme allows users to comment.

Getting feedback through comments on your blog posts goes a long way in boosting your image. This is because it encourages more people to visit and engage with you. It also helps you rate your blogs popularity in order to adjust accordingly. So how do you increase blog comments?

Achieving this is no easy feat which is what this articles hopes to address in order to help you create a commenting culture.

1. Make commenting easy

If you want to engage your visitors through comments, you have to make the commenting section available. To make this possible on WordPress, turn on the comment feature through the Discussion setting on the dashboard.

Steer clear of elements like captchas which waste people’s time making it hard to comment. You can also allow people to comment via Facebook through plugins to simplify the process further.

2. Comment on posts on other blogs

Commenting on other blogs is a good way to get attention for your blog as well as people can follow the link back to you. The blog owner is also likely to visit your blog and leave comments as well increasing your visibility further. Therefore, make it count.

3. Ask a friend to make the first comment

Few people want to be the first at anything more so commenting on a post online. To get the ball rolling, ask a friend to leave the first comment as it will encourage more people to comment as well.

4. Leave the comment section uncluttered

This starts from the top meaning that your whole blog should be free of clutter thus avoid over-designing it. This will ensure that the attention of the visitor is drawn to the comment section right after the post without wasting time trying to locate it.

5. Make the comment section inviting

The mistake many website owners make is setting the default on their comment section to “0 comments”. This intimidates many visitors who shy away from being the ones to break the spell and will therefore not increase blog comments. Why not use something more inviting like “leave a comment”?

6. Respond to comments

This is a simple yet effective way to please and appreciate people commenting on your posts. It shows that you value their input by extending the same courtesy they have shown you. Ignoring comments makes them feel unappreciated and thus, will not do it again. Hence, take the time to go through your comments and reply to them to keep the conversation going.

7. Let them know you have responded

You can use plugins to send notifications to your visitors every time you reply to their comments through email. Facebook does this automatically for those commenting through this platform thus there is no need for this.

Visitors can also subscribe to receive email notifications from your blog whether or not they comment. This is enabled by some WordPress plugins which you can install on your site.

8. Encourage commenting through incentives

People love incentives and rewards thus make use of them to entice them to comment and thus sparking a discussion. Make sure that you moderate the comments to ensure they are relevant to the topic at hand. This is a good way to create interest in your blog boosting the number of visitors.

9. Make use of videos

Videos are regarded as engaging content and for good reason, they are attention grabbing! To encourage people to comment, why not use videos to deliver your content every so often?

The key is to ensure that the content is relevant and interesting enough to keep the visitors watching. Avoid long videos as people are likely to not watch them.

10. Spark controversy

People like to give their opinion on controversial matters therefore, post controversial posts sometimes. Regardless of the nature of the comments, your blog will get the much needed publicity and feedback. You will realize that other bloggers will be creating links on your blog.

11. Be human

Being human by showing vulnerability makes people identify with you as opposed to being a faceless entity behind a computer, encouraging more views. Share something about yourself and you will notice people sharing their stories as well boosting the number of comments on the posts. Read how to start a blog

12. Ask for their take after the post

Ending a post with an invitation for the readers’ views will see you getting more feedback than the opposite. This shows that you value their input and you are looking forward to hearing their perspective. You can also finish the post on a question or leave it hanging and ask readers to weigh in.

13. Delete unrelated comments

Finally, if you think a comment adds no value to the post whatsoever, you should go ahead to stop spam comment and block those behind it. This is because there are many internet trolls out there who thrive on creating a hostile environment curtailing your effort to increase blog comments.