Do blog comments help SEO? When to enable them

Learn what blog comments do for SEO, when to enable them, and how to moderate.

Impact
Low
Effort
Low
Filed under
SEO, Content
Updated

Enabling blog comments is not a direct SEO boost. Search Engine Journal's report on a February 2022 Google office-hours session says a site will not rank better simply for allowing comments. Google's John Mueller said in that session that relevant comments help because readers describe the page in their own words. Comments help when they are relevant and moderated, because they add context and questions from real readers. They hurt when spam and off-topic remarks pile up under your posts.

How to do it

  1. Decide if you can moderate. Comments need daily or weekly attention. If nobody will read them, switch comments off.
  2. Turn them on in your blog platform. In WordPress, the setting is "Allow people to post comments on new articles" under Settings, Discussion.
  3. Add spam controls from day one. The same WordPress screen lets you hold a comment in the queue if it contains a set number of links, require an administrator to approve every comment, and block words, IPs and emails.
  4. Mark links in comments as user-generated. Google recommends the ugc value on links in comments and forum posts. Many platforms add ugc or nofollow for you; check yours.
  5. End each post with a specific question. "What did we miss?" brings nothing. "Which of these three steps took you longest, and why?" brings answers.
  6. Reply to every real comment within a day or two. A reply is the cheapest way to get a second comment from the same reader and to show new readers the thread is alive.
  7. Privacy: if you set a cookie for commenters, WordPress offers an opt-in checkbox for it, which helps with GDPR.

What it looks like in practice

Say you run a blog about invoicing for freelancers and you publish a post on late-payment fees. At the end you ask readers which fee wording they use with clients. In the first week you get a handful of replies, including one that mentions a local rule you did not know about. You reply, add a short note to the post, and link to the reader's comment. The post now covers a case you missed, and the commenter has a reason to come back.

When it backfires

  • Spam. Google lists "Comment spam on blogs" as an example of user-generated spam. Mueller said maintaining comments is tricky because people spam them, and Search Engine Journal's report adds that irrelevant comments could drag down the quality of the whole page. An unmoderated section can hurt a good post.
  • Long pages. A busy thread makes a long page. WordPress can break comments into pages.
  • Deleting is not free either. In a February 2021 office-hours session, Mueller said Google sees comments as part of the content and does not ignore them, and warned against blindly deleting all comments in the hope that nothing changes. He added that if people find your pages through words in the comments, deleting them means Google may no longer surface those pages for those searches.
  • Do not expect a ranking lift. Search Engine Journal's 2022 report is clear that allowing comments does not by itself improve rankings. Treat comments as a reader and research benefit.
  • Legal and privacy. You are storing names, emails and IP addresses. State it in your privacy policy.

Questions people ask

Should you enable blog comments? Yes if you will moderate and reply, and your readers ask questions. No if you will not.

How do I get more blog comments? Ask one specific question at the end, reply to every comment, and keep the form simple.

Is blog commenting on other sites good for SEO? That is a different tactic. See comment marketing. Links marked ugc or nofollow will generally not be followed, Google says.

Sources

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