Getting comments on your website can be a great way to encourage engagement and start building a community. By default, WordPress has its own commenting system, but you also have the option of using a third-party comment system like Disqus. In this article, we’ll compare Disqus vs WordPress native comments to help you decide which is the best option for your website.
What is Disqus?
Disqus is a popular third-party commenting system that can be used on any website. It’s known for its ease of use and wide range of features, including the ability to upvote and downvote comments, threading, and social media integration.
Disqus also makes it easy to moderate comments, with options to flag, hide, or delete comments.
How Does Disqus Work?
When you install Disqus on your website, it will replace the native commenting system. This means that all of your existing comments will be imported into Disqus, and any new comments will be posted using the Disqus system.
One advantage of this is that it makes it easy to switch from the WordPress native comment system to Disqus (or vice versa).
If you decide to switch back to the WordPress native comment system, your Disqus comments will be imported back into WordPress.
Benefits of Switching to Disqus
There are several benefits of switching to Disqus, including:
1) Improved SEO
Disqus is an SEO-friendly platform with features that can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). For example, Disqus automatically generates an XML sitemap of your comments which makes it easier for search engines to index your content.
When you put Disqus on your WordPress website, you’re essentially adding a comments section to each of your blog posts. This comments section allows readers to leave their thoughts and feedback on your post. In turn, this helps to create engagement and encourages other people to comment as well, which can help increase the amount of time that people spend on your website.
When users create an account with Disqus, they need to fill out their profile information. This includes their name, website, location, and bio. These fields give users an opportunity to include relevant keywords that describe their industry or area of expertise.
For example, if someone is a web designer, they might include keywords like “web design”, “web development”, responsive design”, etc . in their profile bio. These keywords help Search engines index user profiles so that when someone searches for those keywords, Disqus profiles appear in search results. This helps increase traffic to user profiles and eventually back to their own websites.
But how does disqus increase SEO? When people leave comments on your blog post, they’re actually creating backlinks to your website. Backlinks are one of the key ranking factors that search engines look at when determining where to rank a website. The more high-quality backlinks you have pointing back to your website, the higher your website will rank.
In addition, having a comments section on each of your blog posts can also help to increase the amount of time that people spend on your pages, which is another key ranking factor. The longer someone spends on one of your pages, the more likely it is that they’ll find what they’re looking for and continue engaging with your content.
2) Increased engagement
With features like social media integration and email notifications, Disqus makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to comments and join the conversation. This can help increase engagement on your website.
One of the most important things you can do to encourage engagement is to make it easy for people to leave comments. Disqus does this by allowing readers to log in with their existing social media accounts, so they don’t have to create a new account just to leave a comment.
This makes it much more likely that people will actually take the time to leave a comment because they don’t have to go through the hassle of creating a new account.
Another benefit of Disqus is that it encourages more thoughtful comments from readers. That’s because when people use their social media accounts to log in, they’re more likely to be invested in the conversation.
They’re also more likely to be civil because they don’t want to ruin their reputation by leaving rude or offensive comments. This results in a better experience for everyone involved, and it encourages people to come back and leave more comments in the future.
When you install Disqus on your WordPress site, you’re also giving yourself the opportunity to build relationships with your readers.
That’s because when people leave comments, you have the chance to respond directly to them. This helps you create a connection with your readers and turn one-time commenters into lifelong fans.
3) Reduced spam
Disqus also helps prevent spam comments from being left on your blog posts and articles. Spam comments are Comments that are irrelevant or promotional in nature and add no value to the discussion. They’re often left by automated bots or people who are trying to promote their own products or services.
Spam comments can hurt your SEO because they’re often low-quality and irrelevant. When users leave comments on your blog posts with Disqus, those comments need to be approved by a moderator before they’re made public. This helps prevent spam comments from being published, which can protect the quality of your content and improve your SEO.
4) Access to Disqus analytics
By switching to Disqus, you’ll gain access to detailed analytics about your comments, including the number of comments, most active commenters, and top-performing content. This data can be helpful in understanding what type of content is driving the most engagement on your website.
To access the analytics feature, simply go to the “Tools” tab on the left-hand side of your Disqus dashboard and click on “Analytics.” From there, you’ll be taken to a page with six different sections: Overview, Best Comments, Active Threads, Top Authors, Traffic Sources, and Comments by Date.
The “Overview” section gives you an overview of all the data that Disqus has collected about your website. This includes things like the total number of comments, the average number of comments per day, and the total number of authors.
The “Best Comments” section highlights the most popular comments on your website. This is based on things like upvotes, downvotes, and replies.
The “Active Threads” section shows you which threads are getting the most activity. This is based on things like the number of replies and unique authors.
The “Top Authors” section showcases the authors who are responsible for the most activity on your website. This includes things like the total number of comments and threaded replies.
The “Traffic Sources” section shows you where your traffic is coming from. This includes things like direct traffic, search engines, social media sites, and external websites.
And finally, the “Comments by Date” section lets you see how many comments were made each day over a certain period of time. You can use this data to see if there are any spikes or dips in activity levels so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Now that we’ve gone over how Disqus analytics work, let’s take a look at why they matter for your website…
Disqus analytics can be incredibly valuable for website owners because they provide insights that would otherwise be unavailable. For example, without Disqus analytics, it would be very difficult to track which threads are getting the most activity or where your traffic is coming from.
But with these insights at your disposal, you can make informed decisions about how to grow your website. In addition to helping you track the performance of your website, Disqus analytics can also help you engage with your audience more effectively.
For example, if you see that one of your threads is getting a lot of activity, you might want to jump in and participate in the discussion yourself. Or if you see that traffic from social media sites is increasing month over month, you might want to focus more of your attention on promoting your website on social media platforms.
By taking advantage of all that Disqus has to offer, you can quickly take your website to the next level!
5) Enhanced security
Many website owners are aware of Disqus as a commenting system, but did you know that it can also help to enhance security on your WordPress website? Disqus is a popular service that helps to manage comments on websites and blogs.
It is used by millions of websites and is trusted by some of the biggest names on the internet. In addition to providing an easy way for visitors to leave comments, Disqus also has a number of features that can help to improve security on your WordPress website.
Disqus works by loading a JavaScript file on your website. This JavaScript file contains all of the code necessary to display the Disqus comments section and comment count.
When a user leaves a comment, the comment is stored on the Disqus servers and not on your WordPress website. This means that if your WordPress website is hacked, the attacker will not be able to access any of the comments left by your users.
Disqus also offers social login which allows users to sign in with their existing account on Facebook, Twitter, or Google. This means that users do not need to create a new account in order to leave a comment, which can help reduce password-related issues.
6) Increased flexibility: There are a few ways that Disqus can help increase the flexibility of your WordPress website. First, Disqus offers a variety of customization options to help you match the comment system to your website’s design. For example, you can change the color scheme, add custom CSS, and embed Disqus comments into your existing website template.
Second, Disqus can be used to replace the default WordPress commenting system. This can be helpful if you’re not a fan of the default commenting system or if you’re looking for more features and functionality. Replacing the default commenting system is a fairly simple process and there are plenty of tutorials available online that can walk you through the process.
Finally, Disqus can be used to import comments from other comment systems. This can be helpful if you’re switching from another comment system or if you want to keep your old comments after switching to Disqus.
Importing comments is a fairly simple process and there are plenty of tutorials available online that can walk you through the process.
7) Improved customer support: One of the benefits of using Disqus is that you have access to customer support. This can be extremely helpful if you run into any problems with the comment system. The customer support team can help you troubleshoot any issues you may have and get the comment system up and running smoothly again.
Another benefit of using Disqus is that it makes it easy for your customers to leave feedback. With the Disqus platform, customers can leave comments and ratings on your website. This feedback can be extremely helpful in identifying areas where your website could use improvement. It can also help you gauge customer satisfaction levels.
8) Improves load times. If you’re not using Disqus on your WordPress website, chances are you’re using a WordPress plugin to power comments on your site. And while there are some good plugins out there, they can often slow down your site’s loading time— something that can hurt your SEO ranking.
Disqus doesn’t have this problem because it loads its comment threads asynchronously—meaning that they don’t slow down the rest of your page from loading. So by adding Disqus to your site, you can actually improve your site’s loading time—another plus for SEO!
9) Increased reach. In addition to being a commenting system, Disqus is also a content platform. This means that it can help you syndicate your content and reach a wider audience. When you syndicate your content through Disqus, it gets shared on the Disqus network as well as on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. This increased exposure can lead to more traffic—and again, more traffic means better SEO.
Drawbacks of Switching to Disqus
There are also some drawbacks to using Disqus, including:
1) Loss of control: When you switch to Disqus, you’re giving up some control over your comments. Disqus owns and moderates the comments on your website, which means you can’t moderate them yourself unless you have a paid subscription.
2) Potential for downtime: Because Disqus is a third-party platform, there’s always the potential for downtime if their servers go down or they experience technical difficulties. This can disrupt the comments on your website and frustrate your visitors.
3) Increased load time: Disqus can also slow down your website because it’s a third-party platform that needs to load its own scripts and stylesheets. This can impact your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX).
How do I switch from the WordPress native comment system to Disqus?
If you’re ready to switch from the WordPress native comment system to Disqus, the process is pretty simple. Just follow these steps:
1. Install and activate the Disqus Comment System plugin on your WordPress site.
2. Go to the Disqus website and create a new account (or sign in to your existing account).
3. Once you’re logged in, click on the “Add Disqus to Your Site” button.
4. Enter your website’s URL and click on the “Create Site” button.
5. On the next page, select the “I want to install Disqus on my site myself” option.
6. Copy the Universal Code snippet and paste it into the WordPress plugin settings page on your website.
7. Save your changes and you’re done!
If you want even more control over the comments on your website, you can upgrade to a paid Disqus subscription. This will give you access to features like comment moderation and analytics. But for most people, the free version will be more than enough.
Conclusion:
If you’re using WordPress’s native comment system, you may be wondering if there’s a better way. In this SEO-friendly article, we’ve taken a look at the benefits of switching from the WordPress native comment system to Disqus. While there are several benefits of making the switch, ultimately the decision comes down to what’s best for your website and your audience.
