Increase Engagement with an Accurate WordPress Comment Count

Enhance Engagement on Your WordPress Site with Accurate Comment Counts

If you want to boost engagement on your WordPress website, one effective way is by displaying an accurate comment count. This not only fosters a sense of community but also serves as social proof that your content is valuable to others. In this article, we will guide you on how to easily showcase the most precise comment count on your WordPress site. Let’s dive in!

The Significance of an Accurate Comment Count

Comments play a crucial role in fostering engagement and building a loyal readership. They allow visitors to interact with both you and each other, creating an active and vibrant community around your content. By displaying an accurate comment count, you entice your readers to participate in discussions and subsequently boost overall engagement on your website.

Utilizing the Simple Blog Stats Plugin

The simplest way to display an accurate comment count is by using the Simple Blog Stats plugin. This plugin showcases the total number of approved comments and comments in moderation, excluding pings and trackbacks. Follow these straightforward steps to get started:

1. Install and activate the Simple Blog Stats plugin.
2. Access the plugin’s options by navigating to Settings » Simple Blog Stats.
3. Expand the ‘Shortcodes’ section to view all available shortcodes.
4. To display the total count of approved comments, use the shortcode [sbs_approved].
5. To show both the total number of approved comments and comments in the moderation queue, use the shortcode [sbs_comments].
6. Place the shortcode in the desired location on your WordPress website.
7. Voila! You can now witness the live comment count on your website.

Including Pingbacks and Trackbacks in the Comment Count

If you wish to incorporate pingbacks and trackbacks in the total comment count, you need to add some custom code to your website. However, directly editing your theme’s files can lead to errors and might even break your site. That’s why we recommend utilizing the WPCode plugin. Here’s how to add custom code using WPCode:

1. Install and activate the free WPCode plugin.
2. Access the plugin’s features by navigating to Code Snippets » Add Snippet.
3. Select a title for your custom code snippet and choose ‘PHP Snippet’ as the code type.
4. Paste the provided snippet into the code editor.
5. In the insertion options, select ‘Run Everywhere’ to create a shortcode that can be used anywhere on your website.
6. Set the snippet status to ‘Active’ and save it.
7. You now have a shortcode, [actual_comment_count], that will display the accurate comment count on your website.

Displaying Comment Count for Specific Posts

If you only want to display the comment count for a specific post or page, you can use the following PHP code snippet with WPCode:

function post_comment_count_shortcode( $atts ) {
  $post_id = get_the_ID();
  $comments_count = get_comments_number( $post_id );

  return $comments_count;
}
add_shortcode( 'post_comment_count', 'post_comment_count_shortcode' );

Follow the same steps mentioned above to add this shortcode to your website. You can now utilize the [post_comment_count] shortcode to showcase the comment count for a specific post or page.

In Conclusion

By displaying an accurate comment count on your WordPress website, you can encourage readers to engage with your content and create a vibrant community. With the Simple Blog Stats plugin and WPCode, you have the necessary tools to easily implement this feature without any hassle. Increase engagement today by showcasing just how active and valuable your content truly is!