How to Turn Off Comments in WordPress (Easy Guide)

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Are you tired of getting a ton of spam comments on your blog? Well, look no further I am going to show you how to turn off comments in WordPress.

Check out the video below where I walk you through step by step how to turn off and disable comments in WordPress.

Do you need comments on your website?

The short answer is no you do not need comments on your website. If you choose to turn your comments off your website is not going to suddenly become penalized by the search engine gods.

I think we can all agree that the world wide web has evolved and it isn’t the same thing it used to be. A blog used to be more of a personal journal detailing the events of your life where you friends and family would follow your blog to see what you and your family were up to. Comments were developed as a way for your audience to engage with your content and ask questions.

Fast forward to today, blogging is more focused on content marketing and aimed to answer searcher intent. Sure, comments can still be a good way for your readers to engage and ask questions, but there are so many other preferred ways for your audience to interact in real time with you through Facebook groups and other social media platforms.

Why I turned off comments on my website

The number one reason why I turned off comments on my website was due to comment spam. Yes, you can easily manage your comments using an anti-spam plugin like Anti-Spam Bee or Aksimet, but for every 1 legitimate comment I got 10x more spam comments.

Comments just didn’t seem to be worth it to me. Plus by turning off the comments on my website it was one less “task” for me to do. When it comes to blogging there are a lot of little tasks you can spend your time on, but the important part is figuring out how to get rid of unnecessary wasted time and spend more time on tasks that matter. Taking comment moderation off my list was worth it to me. You have to decide your goals and what is important to you. If you like having engagement on your blog with comments then definitely keep them turned on.

How to turn off comments for new posts in WordPress

From the WordPress dashboard click on Settings > Discussion from the left hand menu.

Under the section – Default Post Settings. Uncheck the box for Allow people to submit comments on new posts. Next, scroll down to save your settings.

For any new post you create the comment section will already be disabled.

How to turn off comments for individual posts in WordPress

You can easily turn off comments for an individual post or see the next section on how to turn off comments in bulk.

Open up the post that you want to turn the comments off for. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the Discussion section and uncheck the box for comments.

If you do not see the discussion box then scroll back to the top and open up the screen options and check the box for discussion to make it visible.

Make sure you update your post to save your setting changes.

How to turn off comments for WordPress in Bulk

If you already have a lot of published content on your website then you want an easier solution than turning the comments off one by one.

To turn the comments off in bulk from your WordPress dashboard select All posts from the left hand menu.

Click the box next to Title to select all posts in the list.

Under bulk actions select edit and then click the button to Apply.

You will notice additional settings pop up for you. Under the comments section select Do Not Allow and then click apply.

Click through the next page of posts and repeat until you have turned the comments off for all posts.

If you have any more questions about turning comments off on WordPress or what is the best comment management plugin then check out this comprehensive guide.

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Hi! I'm Tricia the founder of Blog Her Way. I teach aspiring bloggers how to set up their website + grow their email list to start earning income online.