How to Moderate Comments in WordPress: The Guide

The comments section below a WordPress post allows you to create an interaction with your readers. But WordPress takes it a step further: it gives you the ability to moderate user comments through the comment moderation feature.

However, how to moderate or not to moderate is the age-old question that apparently has no definitive answer. Ultimately, the decision is yours, but you need to carefully weigh the pros and cons of either option.

But before we get started, if you've never installed WordPress, find out How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog 

Then let's go to why we are here.

What is comment moderation?

Simply put, it is the process of approving comments based on a set of restrictions. Instead of just allowing every comment on your website to be displayed, you should instead manually approve the comments or enable the settings to selectively filter and approve and automatically comments.

Since this is a beginner's guide to comment moderation in WordPress, we'll highlight a few reasons for and against comment moderation before suggesting an ideal solution.

Why you should moderate comments

• Without moderation and the right spam filtering tools, your blog can easily become a spam fair, especially if it's popular. Moderation gives you full control over viewing comments and removing spam and other low-quality comments. Engaging trusted users builds trust and your blog will quickly gain authority in your niche.
• Comment spam usually contains links, some of which may be redirected to potentially malicious websites. If a user clicks on a link that redirects them to a place they don't want to be, they'll lose trust in your blog, which is essentially the same as losing trust in you. With moderation, you can block potentially malicious links.
• A well-moderated comment topic can add value to an otherwise dull post. There may be readers who are more knowledgeable on the subject and their contribution can uplift your article. Good quality reviews attract knowledgeable people who will add valuable information and that's what you want for your article. Remember, comments become part of your blog content as long as the post exists on it.

Why you shouldn't moderate comments

• Moderation of comments can take time. For large websites that have a good readership, this can get tedious or even impractical (unless you're using a third-party comment management system).
• Moderation frustrates many users who want to engage in the discussion. Users generally want to see their comment immediately after posting it. What if you're not there to approve it?
• You can handle comment spam using a plugin. For example, the Akismet plugin which comes with the wordpress software does a pretty good job of removing spam as long as you set it up correctly.

Now that you know the pros and cons of moderation, what are you going to do ? My recommendation is to moderate, but be smart about it. 

WordPress' basic commenting system is pretty decent. It allows you to moderate comments effectively while keeping the vast majority of comment spam out.

Default WordPress comment moderation settings

To configure your blog for moderation, go to Settings> Comments. This is where you will find the default WordPress comment settings.

You can leave them as they are if you want, but we recommend that you make some changes.

Limit email notifications

If you log into your website every day, you probably don't need comment notifications turned on.

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Scroll down to the section Message me when. This is where you enable or disable comment moderation using the basic system and it's quite simple: if you check the first box, you will receive an email for every comment posted, if you check the second box, you will receive emails when a comment is made.

But as mentioned, if you are connecting to your website feel free to uncheck both. WordPress adds a counter at the top of the dashboard as well as next to the comments in your sidebar. This is pretty obvious when you have comments to moderate.

Moderate authors for the first time

An easy way to make moderation less painful is to enable automatic approval for reviewers who have been approved once. To activate this setting, go to Settings> Comments and check the section Before posting a comment, check the second box that says The author of a comment must already have at least one approved comment. Leave the box above unchecked.

If a comment writer changes their information - name and email - then they will need to be moderated again.

Just keep an eye out for reviewers who have already been approved. Some of them have already learned how your system works and can make some quality comments initially, but then relax with future comments because they know they will be approved automatically.

Disable trackbacks

Sometimes you will have to treat comment spam as trackback spam, so think carefully before allowing Trackbacks and Pingbacks. They really don't add much to your SEO, as it's just a notification that another website is linked to yours. It's usually a good idea to turn them off.

But don't worry - you can still find out who is linking to your website with SEO tools, like Moz or ahrefs. Or you can configure your RSS feeder to see inbound links.

Filter obvious spam

You can also use the options Moderation of comments et Block list for comments to prevent the publication of obvious spam messages on your website.

By default, any comment with more than 2 links will be moderated. But if you don't want any links in your comments, you can set this parameter to 0.

We also recommend this article on WordPress Security: real and tested measures to protect a blog

You can also add specific words to contain block a comment. VYou can also use some keywords that are just not relevant to your website and send them to the trash. 

Requirements for comments, cookies and more

By default, the setting requires visitors to provide a name and email. However, if you want to allow only subscribers to comment, you can also require users to be logged in to your website.

And depending on your location in the world, you should consider enabling the setting for ACheck the box to accept cookies on comments. This will add an opt-in GDPR compliant  and lastly, that the user's browser can save their name, email and website for future comments.

Order of comments

By default, comments range from the first first (oldest) at the top down to the latest (most recent) at the bottom. But if you want your most recent comments displayed at the top, just change the last order setting to "recent." "

This might make sense for websites where readers contribute up-to-date content, such as a local restaurant directory with reviews or a blog on medical research results.

Disable comments after a specified period

There is also an option to close comments after a specified number of days, which can be useful depending on the nature of your website.

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In general, the reviews are good. They add unique content to your website. Plus, they show search engines that your content is relevant and that readers are actively involved with your website.

See also our guide on How to organize files in WordPress media library folders

We do not recommend limiting the time frame for comments without a valid reason. Most websites should leave this option unchecked. But there are cases where this option makes sense. 

Use plugins to filter comment spam

Spam in comments can be hard to spot just using the options filtering by default of WordPress. But with the help of plugins they are easier to identify. Here is a selection of WordPress plugins which you can use to achieve this:

1. Zxeion 

Zxeion is a powerful premium WordPress plugin which helps strengthen the security of your website. This plugin contains a collection of patches and tools for additional protection, as well as real-time network protection, which can help you identify and block threats to your website without having to do anything.

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Its functionalities are among others: real-time protection, the possibility of hiding the admin section, automated banning by the Firewall, file protection, the IP blocker, protection against attacks by Brute Force, server error detection, spam protection and many more.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. Anti-spam Pro

Anti-Spam Pro is a powerful premium WordPress spam protection plugin, this WordPress plugin can help you get rid of 100% automated spam and over 50% of manual spam on your website.

Ce WordPress protection plugin spam protection works right out of the box. It doesn't display any annoying Captchas where you have to deal with a long queue of channels.

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Just install the plugin and do something else. This plugin will instantly increase the overall protection of your website.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

3. CommentPress

CommentPress is a powerful premium WordPress plugin compact that allows you to insert, edit and delete comments quickly and easily. In short, take charge of your comment management system. CommentPress uses Ajax, jQuery, and PHP to insert comments, so you won't need to reload the page.

This WordPress plugin has many options that allow you to customize it and give it the look of your website. He proposes a captcha to fight against spam and to have more security in the forms.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

Allow users to moderate for you

Finally, another way to moderate comments is to allow certain editors or authors to manage moderation. In general, you should only give your most loyal users this kind of authority. If your blog is an authority, and has a lot of comments, this might be the best way to manage comment moderation.

The members faithful of the community become trusted users that you can grant access to other moderate users. You can create a reward system to motivate them, for example by featuring them on your team page. A plugin such as user role editor can be used to create and add this role seamlessly to your blog. 

Always remember that you retain full control over who comments on your posts and what they post. Give this section of your blog the attention it deserves and your blog will become a trusted authority.