Four Reasons I Don’t Paginate Comments

By Brandon Cox | 20 Comments

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Most Wordpress installs divide your comments into pages of 50, by default. There are some obvious pros to this – page loading time is increased, page length is more reasonable, and the comment form is easier to get to (assuming it’s at the bottom). But there are also some disadvantages I’ve recently noticed, which have provoked me to turn the feature off on this blog, for now.

Comments Are An Extension of Your Content

Your content is more than your article. It includes the conversation that follows, so I want the conversation visibly attached to the content which it surrounds.

The Article Permalink Changes on Every Page of Comments

I first noticed this when I would submit a comment on my own blog in response to someone esle. My bookmarking buttons with counts on them (at the top, next to the title) all went to zero. Why? The permalink changed from .com/whatever to .com/whatever/comment-page1/. So the permalink used in those bookmarking buttons changes from the actual permalink I’d like people to share.

If you’re like me, I comment first, then share so that people see how I’ve contributed to the conversation when they arrive at the link.

It’s a Usability Issue

In two ways. One, I don’t want people to have to click to page two to see more comments even though it would raise my pageviews and lower my “bounce rate.” Two, nobody clicks them anyway!

I Rarely Get More Than Fifty Comments

This last reason is important because it’s the one where I contradict all that I’ve said previously. I would paginate comments if I were, oh say, a pro blogger or something. If a good article got 75 or more comments, I’d want to start paginating because of the benefits stated above.

You might consider thinking over these things and checking out your default settings on your own blog.

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About the Author

Brandon Cox

I'm Brandon Cox, a Pastor, a Designer, and Editor of Fuel Your Blogging. I live in northwest Arkansas with my wife and daughter, and our second child is on the way.

Comments

20 Responses to “Four Reasons I Don’t Paginate Comments”
  1. Eugen R. says:

    All these reasons are true. If you get 300 comments which all state ‘thx’ or ‘great work’, I wouldn’t want to show them all. However, if you get 75 comments all being part of a discussion, cutting it off would be less than unproductive.
    Eugen R.´s last blog ..Durarara, from a ‘meh’ to a ‘wow’

  2. Tim Smith says:

    I totally agree with this post! Either way, I’ve never gotten enough comments to merit paginating them anyway.

  3. I turned this feature off as well. For now I do not get that many posts. Right now, the most I ever received is about 20. To me I see the comments as content. Of course search engine see this as well. If you have a post that goes viral and its constantly getting comments on it even months later this will also tell the search engines that the page is still active. This will help in rankings.

    If I ever get to the point where I get that many comments, I would seriously think about paginating but that would only be if I had a lot of junk / comment spam on them.

  4. Will says:

    Totally agree with you there. Helpful on-topic comments also add to the on-page natural usage of keywords and keyword variations.

    Recently, I’ve seen an interesting plugin that, in addition to listing your comments, it will dynamically create a new page (and add it to your sitemap) for the comment, which will also display each of the commentator’s prior comments. I thought that was pretty cool.

  5. Really good points Brandon! My best post has only received 21 comments so I have a while to go, but then again, I don’t think problogger has page comments does he?

  6. Keith says:

    I also noticed that after I comment the retweet was a problem, just didn’t know why this was happening. Thanks Brandon, just changed mine. I haven’t had 50 comments yet but have a few in the 40’s.

  7. DarrinW says:

    Funny I never thought about paginating comments, but I do wonder would that affect the SEO aspect of the page? If a comment is buried in page X, would that comment be more difficult for the search engines to find?
    DarrinW´s last blog ..Blog commenting – Following a guideline

  8. Uttoran Sen says:

    the comment-page-1 is a major seo issue, i never break comments into pages and have made a post on it some time back, good to see other bloggers covering this major seo problem… i just hope wordpress finish up this breaking into comments option completely…
    Uttoran Sen´s last blog ..10 Things to do Before Making a Blog

  9. I’m with you on this. I just expect comments to be on the same pag and generally won’t ever see them if they are elsewhere.
    Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..Best Basic Cookbook

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