Comments and user engagement are going to be a big part of your success. A website becomes a "community" and interactive the minute you can start engaging people on your site. Your goal is not only to inform and sell to people, but to get them asking questions, discussing important and relevant topics, and leaving you feedback and reviews.
But how do you determine whether or not a comment is legit?
First things first though, there are a ton of comment spammers out there and we want to prevent people from spamming your website. There is a very effective plugin for doing this called WP Spamshield Anti-spam. This plugin is automatically installed with your website and set-up to start blocking spam so there is nothing extra you have to do to block the "majority" spam.
However, some spam will still make it through so we are also going to show you how to clear out any "junk" comments and help you understand what is the difference between a real comment and a fake comment.
Task 1: Clear Out Any Junk or Default Comments
Your next task is to simply go into your Comments tab and to "remove" any comments that are spam.
You will notice that beside the comments tab, you will have a little orange bubble that indicates the number of "pending" comments. In this case I have 1,821 pending comments.
If you have any comments that are REAL (some of you may have some of these) and you have not approved them yet, I suggest you do this as well. Make sure you spend some time to reply to every comment that you get.
Task 2: Update your pages to "ask for feedback"
Getting people engaging is critical to your website successful. There are several reasons for this, some more obvious than others.
(1) Increase Trust - Not only with the people that comment and get a reply, but the people that read the comments. More trust equate to more conversions.
(2) Good for SEO - Google and other search engines like content that is active, that people are engaging in and that is constantly being updated. This is exactly what comments do and it can lead to your page/post having higher rankings and a long lasting presence within the search engines.
(3) Customer Understanding - When you invite people to give you feedback and ask questions, you are going to get a ton of insight into your audience, what they are thinking, what they need help with, and often times their "hot buttons" (what will lead to conversions).
Each and every page and post on your site should end with you asking people to leave a comment, whether you are offering your help, asking them to leave their opinion/thoughts, or simply asking them straight up for a comment. (see my example below)
Task 3: Post ONE page within this discussion and ask for comments
I have created a thread that you can post one of the pages on your site (could be any page) and ask the folks here at Wealthy Affiliate to help you out with a comment on a page within your site.
GET COMMENTS: Ask for Comments Here (Give and Take Thread)
These comments are going to get the ball rolling here and is going to give your site the "appearance" of being an active one, not only to your visitors but to Google as well.
Remember to respond to all of the comments on your website in a timely manner.
Task 4: Comment on at least 3 other people's websites
Your last task today is going to be to comment on at least 3 people's website pages that they post within the following discussion.
OFFER YOUR COMMENTS: Comment on AT LEAST 3 members websites
Don't give one liners like "great site" or "thanks for the info", the more helpful and relevant the comments are, the better. You could even ask a question or start a conversation.