WordPress Comments and SEO: Do Spam Comments Hurt? (2026)
Can blog comments hurt your rankings? In 2014, while trying to recover from Google penalties, we realised hundreds of low-quality comments that slipped past our spam filters were dragging some pages down. So we moved WordPress comments onto separate pages and kept those out of Google’s index. Here’s what we learned about WordPress comments and SEO, and what to do in 2026.
Quick answer: Google treats comments as part of your page, so spammy or low-quality comments can weaken it, while thoughtful comments can add value. Moderate strictly, use anti-spam tools, add rel=”ugc” or nofollow to comment links (WordPress does this by default), close comments on old posts, and delete thin or spammy comments. Separating comments onto their own page is an option for heavy-comment sites, but good moderation matters more.
Table of Contents
Why comments can hurt a page
- Spammy links in the commenter’s name or text.
- Poor grammar, gibberish or off-topic text.
- Bad or unrelated keywords that confuse what the page is about.
Google’s Panda-era quality updates looked at whole pages. Hundreds of junk comments could make a good article look poorly maintained. Google has since said that it considers user-generated content on your pages as part of your site, so you’re responsible for moderating it.
What we did in 2014
We moved comments to separate pages (using the old comments popup template), added noindex, follow to those pages and nofollowed the links to them. Readers could still read and post comments with one click, but Google indexed only the article. WordPress removed the comments popup feature in version 4.5, so today the same idea uses a different method: see how to show WordPress comments on a separate page.
WordPress comments and SEO: best practices for 2026
- Moderate: hold first-time comments for approval (Settings > Discussion).
- Block spam with Akismet or Antispam Bee.
- Link attributes: WordPress adds
rel="nofollow ugc"to comment links automatically. - Close old comments: auto-close comments after a set number of days.
- Clean up: delete thin comments like “Nice post” with links, and edit out spammy links.
- Speed: lazy load comments on busy posts, and avoid creating thin comment pagination pages.
Should you turn comments off?
Not necessarily. Good discussion adds unique content and shows real engagement. If you can’t moderate, though, closing comments is better than letting spam pile up.
FAQ
Do comments help SEO?
Quality comments can add useful content and freshness. Spammy ones can hurt.
Are comment links nofollow in WordPress?
Yes, WordPress adds rel=”nofollow ugc” to links in comments by default.
Should I noindex comment pages?
If comments live on separate pages with little value, noindex them. Comments on the main post page are indexed with the post.
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Fantastic post. I didn’t know spam comments were part of the Panda update.I didn’t realize comments could cause problems with Panda
I didn’t realise comments could cause problems with Panda. I’ll have to keep an eye on that! Thanks for sharing.
Very nice information and you have explained very nicely,
We have to always be updated with google updates and penalties.
Thanks for sharing
Cheers..
Great post. I didn’t know spam comments were part of the Panda update.
No follow links are just as important as follow because they are natural, right?
thanks for the useful tips.
Great tip. Honestly, I had never considered that this could be a part of the Google indexing process. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic post. I has been checking constantly this website and I’m pleased! Extremely beneficial info particularly the last portion. I look after such details much. I has been seeking this kind of certain details for a long time. Thank an individual and all the best.Many thanks for share this idea.
Thanks! I get quite a few spam comments on my WP. I didn’t know spam comments were part of the Panda update.
Thanks for sharing this informative post. I have a small question. How about using Disqus Comment plugin on wordpress?
This is the first site I had seen the comments separate from the post and I really like it, it just clears up the page so much. I’m thinking of doing it on my own site.
It is really so useful idea to prevent spam.Thank’s for post such a worthy psot.
Awesome info, No follow links are just as important as follow because they are natural, All do follow links make your site look like paid or manufactured.
Thanks
It is really so useful idea to prevent spam.Thank’s for post such a worthy psot.
Great post,
Something bad happening without our mistake is really painful,as I have experienced.
Thanks for the great tip.
Great idea, I will implement this and would check result. Such a nice sharing regarding WordPress comments to fix panda penalty.
I have a custom coded website, how can we implement a solution similar to yours, our platform used is asp.net and we would also like to implement a separate pop up like solution!