WordPress has a great system that lets your readers comment on your blog posts, offering their opinions and suggestions, and in many cases creating discussion. But this can sometimes get out of hand and potentially create a headache for you.

Why disable comments?

Maybe you don’t want to respond to comments, or maybe your blog posts are more like announcements and don’t need a response. Whatever the reason, you want to disable blog comments. Here’s how you can accomplish that.

Steps to disable comments for a single post

1. Log in to WordPress. 2. Go to the blog post you want to turn the comments off for. 3. In the top navigation menu, click Edit Post. 4. In the right menu, under Discussion, uncheck the Allow discussion box. 5. At the top of the page, click Update.

Steps to disable comments for all posts

1. Log in to the WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Settings > Discussion. 3. Under Default Post Settings uncheck the box next to Allow people to post comments on new articles. 4. Click Save Changes.

Understanding comment spam

Comments are an integral part of any website. They allow readers to interact with the content, express points of view, and provide feedback to the author. Comment spam is a different type of interaction that typically consists of links that send readers to unrelated web pages or advertisements. The text accompanying these links is often incoherent and usually badly written, with grammar and spelling mistakes, and misplaced punctuation (to get around the comment blockers.) Comment spam is also known as comment fraud, comment fraudulence, or comment abuse. Comment spammers typically use this tactic to drive traffic back to their websites which usually contain affiliate links, so they can earn commissions from products purchased by the person clicking on the link within the spammer’s comment. These types of comments are typically posted by spambots.

How I avoid comment spam (and much more) without disabling comments

I use a plugin called CleanTalk (that’s an affiliate link), which I also install on all my client’s websites. For a single website, for just $8 a year, it will protect your comments, your contact forms, your forums, your orders, booking forms, any custom forms … just about anywhere a user has to enter their details. I look at the reports each week and I’m astounded at the data. You can click on each email or comment that’s been deflected to make sure it really was spam. It runs silently in the background, users don’t have to be bothered with CAPTCHAs or completing math problems – it just works. Anyway, advertisement over. Give it a try!