WordPress Comments Pagination Guide

Learn how and why to use the WordPress comments pagination, Check out the best wp site comments and discussion pagination guide & tutorial

By Claudio Pires
Updated on June 4, 2023
WordPress Comments Pagination Guide

See this article on how and why to use the WordPress comments pagination. Have you noticed that your blog posts with many comments load slower than other posts? That’s because loading so many words increases server load, increasing your average page load time. Learn how and why to use the WordPress comments pagination, Check out the best wp site comments and discussion pagination guide & tutorial.

Having a lot of comments is a good thing because it means your users are engaged with your content. Your most commented posts are usually the most popular posts on your blog.

Another reason to paginate your WordPress comments is to maintain the keyword density of your articles. Comments add a lot of content to your post’s page and may not always include your target keywords sufficiently.

Why It’s Necessary to Paginate Comment Responses in WordPress

Have you observed that blog posts with many comments take longer to load?

Many comments on a single page increase the pressure on your WordPress hosting server, which may adversely affect your website.

Posts with many comments may even deplete the server’s resources and lead to visitors seeing the white screen of death.

Search engines like Google utilize the speed and performance of WordPress as a factor in ranking. As a result, many comments are also detrimental to your WordPress SEO.

Additionally, comments significantly impact your posts, but they don’t always have to include your targeted keyword. This will affect your ratio of keywords to content, which can lead to the exclusion of your post from search engines.

With this said, let’s explore your way of dividing comments across multiple pages while paginating them in WordPress. Learn how and why to use the WordPress comments pagination, Check out the best wp site comments and discussion pagination guide & tutorial.

WordPress Comments Pagination Guide

Paginating comments in WordPress is very easy to do. Just follow these simple steps. First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Settings > Discussions > Other comment settings.

Check the box where it says Break comments into pages and select the number of words you want to show on each blog post. You can also select which page to display the Older or Newer comment. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

That’s it. All done. Now go to your posts with many comments and see the comments pagination working on your WordPress site. You will see that it shows comments on different pages instead of showing all comments.

Your theme will determine the paginating style. Paginating comments can be a good idea only if you are getting a considerable number of comments. Otherwise, you needn’t worry about paginating.

To Paginate or Not

Paginating comments is probably only good if you set the number relatively high. You probably wouldn’t want to set the number at five as I did in my example. But if you put it at 25 or more, then even if you don’t usually get a lot of comments, you’ll be all set if a post does happen to generate more discussion than usual.

Step-by-Step Guide: WordPress Comments Pagination Guide

Break comments into pages

WordPress offers built-in functionality for comment pagination, allowing you to split long comment threads into multiple pages. This helps improve the user experience and site performance. Here’s a guide on how to set up comments pagination in WordPress:

Step 1: Enable comments pagination

  1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Go to “Settings” and click on “Discussion.”
  3. Look for the “Other comment settings” section.
  4. Enable the “Break comments into pages” option by checking the box.
  5. Set the number of comments per page. This value determines how many comments will display on each page.

Step 2: Configure the comment pagination settings

  1. While still in the “Discussion” settings, scroll down to the “Email me whenever” section.
  2. Check the box, “A comment is held for moderation.”
  3. Adjust other settings per your preference, such as comment order, comment threads, and other moderation options.
  4. Save your changes.
Claudio Pires

Claudio Pires is the co-founder of Visualmodo, a renowned company in web development and design. With over 15 years of experience, Claudio has honed his skills in content creation, web development support, and senior web designer. A trilingual expert fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective to his work. Beyond his professional endeavors, Claudio is an active YouTuber, sharing his insights and expertise with a broader audience. Based in Brazil, Claudio continues to push the boundaries of web design and digital content, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.