comments locked 150x150 How closing comments can lose loyal readersI was going to call it a day on posting, but one thing that keeps bothering me had to be written right away before I forgot and got irritated the next time it came around. That thing is that some blogs turn off comments after 30 days, or another timeline set by them. An example of this would be a post on ProBlogger I wanted to comment on which you can see here.

Now I will be the first one to tell you that I am not a kisser of butts. I wouldn’t mind securing a guest post slot on ProBlogger, but not at the expense of me not being able to tell it like it is. The fact is that I have come across this issue on that blog, and others. The result? Me not coming back daily like I did at first. It was a huge turn-off for me to see that message where the comment box should be.

Before you go and try to explain to me that it is required because of the massive amount of spam comments get, let me tell you that that particular excuse is tired to me. Weeding out the spam is fairly simple. In my akismet, I can scan the spam comments looking for non-spam comments that were caught on accident, and I can do that in a few minutes. It really isn’t all that hard. Once you got all of the good comments out of there, there’s this thing called bulk action where you can delete all the spam at once! What a concept huh?

Ok, so let me tell you why from a seo standpoint, locking your comments is a stupid idea. Search engines thrive on fresh content. When you have a stale post that is so old that it collected PageRank, chances are that the post will receive extra attention. Why refuse commentators the ability to add fresh content to that page? I guess is you are making 6-7 figures a year, you can care less about turning off a few fans. But that will never be me. I believe that allowing comments are what bring loyal readers back. I also believe that not getting too fat headed when you become successful and make the rounds commenting on smaller blogs is a good idea. Why turn your back on the people that made you in the first place?

What surprises me even more than ProBlogger cutting off new comments is that I have seen brand new blogs doing this. If you don’t have a loyal following already in place that comments daily on your blog, why the H.E.Double-HockeyStix would you want your posts to be locked from commenting? You must want your posts to say “no comments” for life! Commentators are likely to add something to your precious post that you forgot about and left out.

Please do not turn your back on others and lock out comments to save a few minutes a day. You are only hurting your blog!

How closing comments can lose loyal readers

About the author

Brandon Connell wrote 404 articles on this blog.

I am an author, blogger, investor, musician, and internet marketer among other things. I believe that one person can do many things in life. Check out my local search marketing company at Leads2LocalSearch.com when you are done browsing here.

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