One of the many questions that you may have when starting a blog is in regards to comments. Should you enable comments? That’s a tough call but it’s something that is worth exploring on a deeper level. There are both good and bad points to this solution, and getting yourself into the right frame of mind to move forward with the right option for your particular needs will rely heavily on what you want out of your blog. You’re going to find that there is no wrong answer here, and that really depends on what you want your site to be about and be used for. The debate of whether or not you should enable comments is just another element that requires some thought.
What If You Don’t Enable Comments?
If you do not enable comments, you will have to set up a site that is a one way communication tool. Blogs are traditionally not one sided, they request information from the readers in a lot of different ways. Whether you want people to give you ideas, or you want to see what’s on the mind of the fan base that you build, setting up yourself to get a little bit of information is a good thing. If you don’t enable comments, then you will have no interaction with people unless they email you or find you through other means. The bounce rate of your site may go up as a result of this, especially if you’re going to post anything remotely controversial.
The Conversation Can Start If You Enable Comments
For those that want to engage a response, and want conversation, then absolutely enable comments. Do not forget about this, as you will want to make sure that you are encouraging people to come in and speak about a variety of different topics, and that will help you build market share over time. Sites that allow this usually get more traffic as the comments, especially nested ones, are usurped into indexes along search engines. As far as “deep” SEO, this is a great solution moving forward. You will not go wrong if you chase this, guaranteed.
The Problems You May Face
There are problems associated with this idea. If you go ahead and enable comments you may have to deal with spam, DOS attacks, hijacking, and of course people fighting over frivolous things. Fights that break out on your page may ostracize the community that you are trying to reach. Not everyone is going to want to move forward with commenting on your site if they feel that they are going to be attacked. There are also going to be people trying to get a little bit of SEO juice through back linking and will dump comments all over your website. This is not a good thing either, and it could cause you distress.
At the end of the day, consider whether or not you have time to cycle through comments that are on your site. If you have a lot of comments, will you be able to fully realize every one of them, or will you lose yourself in the conversation and forget to update your site? Ask yourself what the purpose of your site truly is, then decide whether you should enable comments or not.
