Five Ways to Remove WordPress’s ‘Leave a Reply’

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Curious about how to eliminate the ‘leave a reply’ feature on WordPress? You’ve found the right page if that’s the case.

While replies and comments offer an excellent way to engage with your visitors, there may be times when you prefer not to have them. Indeed, comments can be beneficial for some websites and less so for others.

Hence, the decision is yours on whether to remove the ‘leave a reply’ section or leave it as is.

By default, WordPress includes a commenting system on your posts. But what if you want to turn off the comment section?

No worries, WordPress provides you with a variety of options to manage, enable, or disable comments on your website.

Why Would You Want to Get Rid of ‘Leave a Reply’ on WordPress?

Removing the comment section from a website is uncommon, but certain websites prefer not to have comments or replies.

Here are some reasons for disabling the comment section:

1. Spam comments: This is one of the most common reasons for turning off the comment section. Despite various comment anti-spam plugins, some opt to close comments entirely to effectively eliminate comment spam.
2. Unwanted interaction: Certain types of websites may not desire user interaction. For instance, brochure websites aim solely to provide information and announcements, so they may choose to avoid engaging in conversations with users.
3. Slow site speed: If a blog receives a large volume of comments, it can impact site speed. If comment monitoring and moderation are challenging, comments may accumulate and adversely affect page speed.

What is The Impact After Disabling the Comment Section?

Before disabling comments, it’s important to consider what you stand to lose in the aftermath. This is crucial for making an informed decision.

Here are some aspects you might miss:

1. Valuable Suggestions: Users may have valuable suggestions to offer, and by turning off comments, you could miss opportunities to enhance and improve your site.
2. Potential Customer Interaction: Commenting serves as an easy way for potential customers to seek additional information about products or services. Disabling comments may result in a loss of prospects who rely on this avenue for engagement.
3. Positive Social Proof: Positive comments on your site can serve as social proof, influencing other visitors and potentially converting them into regular customers. Turning off comments means forfeiting this opportunity to build credibility and trust.

Five Simple Ways to Remove ‘Leave a Reply’ on WordPress

There are in general five simple ways to remove ‘leave a reply’ on WordPress. Let’s check them out!

Entire Control of ‘Leave a Reply’ Section

By following this approach, you can eliminate the comment section entirely from your WordPress site, covering all pages and posts.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Settings menu.
2. Select Discussion from the menu.
3. In the Default post settings section, locate and uncheck the “Allow people to submit comments on new posts” option.
4. Ensure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom-left of the settings page.

Block ‘Leave a Reply’ in Specific Pages or Posts

To begin, access the Posts menu in your dashboard and click on All Posts to view your posts. Hover over any specific post, and you will notice the Quick Edit option.

Click on Quick Edit, and within the Tags section, you’ll find the “Allow Comments” checkbox. Simply uncheck ‘Allow comments’ and then click the ‘Update’ button.

Remove in bulks

If you wish to eliminate the ‘leave a reply’ section from multiple posts or pages at once, this method is the most suitable.

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the ‘Posts’ or ‘Pages’ menu and click on ‘All Posts’ or ‘All Pages.’
2. Check the box on the left side of the Title to select the items you want to edit.
3. Choose ‘Edit’ from the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown and click on the ‘Apply’ button to initiate editing.
4. Within the editing options, locate ‘Comments’ and click on its dropdown.
5. Select the ‘Do not allow’ option for comments and, finally, click the ‘Update’ button.

This process ensures that the comment section will no longer appear for all the selected posts and pages.

Delete Existing Comments on Your WordPress Site

Navigate to the WordPress dashboard and select the Posts > All Posts menu to view all your posts.

Here’s a step-by-step process:

1. Locate the post from which you want to delete all comments in the ‘Comments’ column.
2. In this column, you’ll find the number of comments on that post. There may be two numbers—one inside the comment icon, indicating approved comments, and another in a red circle, denoting pending comments.
3. To delete approved comments, click on the comment icon. This takes you to a new page listing all approved comments.
4. To remove all comments, click the ‘Author’ checkbox to select all comments and replies.
5. Choose ‘Move to Trash’ from the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown, and then click ‘Apply.’
6. All approved comments will be deleted. If there are more than 20 comments, you may need to repeat the process for the next page.
7. To delete pending comments, click on the ‘Pending’ option next to the ‘Approved’ option, and follow the same steps to select and delete all pending comments.

Use a Plugin to Disable WordPress Comments

Simply go to Plugins > Add New and search for “Disable Comments” in the search bar.

Once you locate the plugin, click on the ‘Install’ button.

After the installation, you’ll see an ‘Activate’ button. Click on ‘Activate’ to start using the plugin.

Now, on the left side of the menu, navigate to Settings and click on Disable Comments in your dashboard. Here, you can place a checkmark on ‘Everywhere’ to globally disable comments across your entire website.

Alternatively, you can check ‘Posts,’ ‘Pages,’ and ‘Media’ in the “On Specific Post Types” section. This option allows you to disable comment-related fields for specific posts/pages, while others will retain a visible comment section.