This WordPress tutorial teaches how you can remove Website or URL field
from comment form of any WordPress blog. The tutorial is simple and safe!
Ow wow! Why is that brows? I know, I know…
You are probably thinking why this crack has started to flow upward? What the heck is this when there are so nice tutorials about how to make your comment links nofollow free, how to make your blog a dofollow blog, how you can best reward your comment authors and so on…why the hell to remove website field from comment form? Will there be anyone to leave a comment on a blog that does not let you leave your url? Don’t you know why Andy’s CommentLuv plugin got so popular?
I agree! Truly! And I understand the importance of connections – the network of bloggers for benefit for all! But there are some situations – sometimes, you must remove that URL box out from your comment form.
I have a blog ICT Trends where I talk about how to better prepare the Computer Jobs Exams and currently I am helping the candidates of Computer Operator Examination. I offer articles to remind them what they should not forget. I offer PDF files to download so that they can review and study offline. I point to the resources available and useful for them in other sites.
My targeted traffic there are the students and candidates of different computer jobs exam. They don’t have any websites or blogs; and even if they have they are not interested to share their link at this moment. They are more worried about the exams and they are hurried to collect whatever offered and get into the study desk.
ICT Trends uses WordPress the best platform for any blogger to do EVERYTHING! The template offers URL field by default. On the top of that I’d installed commentLuv and keywordLuv plugins. Why did I do that? Now, you can guess what sort of comments I was collecting everyday.
The post to whom it was intended, they rarely commented. Those who wrote comments, it was not for them at all!
Hey dude! Excellent article on Windows XP! Don’t you know Windows 2007 is already there. Looking 2007 in your future posts. Good work keep it up!
LOL, what can I do when Public Service Commission has prescribed Windows XP in their syllabus.
Don’t talk about those ‘Replica handbags’ and ‘watches’.
What is the solution? At first, I thought of removing comment section from the posts. But, let the students and candidates write something in case they find any errors or problem while downloading etc. Then on second thought I decided to remove the URL field. It is the sole reason why all those spammers are tempted for.
Because ICT Trends is Google PR 4 and because it is equipped with commentLuv and keywordLuv, I should not blame them. Its me who designed my home a garbage.
Well, so, I made a correct decision, didn’t it? There might be many other reasons why you wish to remove the Website field from comment form. I’d be glad to hear if you have any. Do write on comments below, I have not removed URL field on this blog. And yes, commentLuv and keywordLuv both are enabled!
How to remove URL field from comment form?
Its very simple. Look at the following procedure, even a novice blogger can easily do it without any errors!
Step 1. Create a file on desktop (or anywhere in your computer that you can navigate) name it something like nourl.php or something (but php extension is a must)
Step 2. Paste following code in that newly created file
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Remove Website Field
Description: Removes the website field from the comments form
*/
add_filter(‘comment_form_default_fields’, ‘url_filtered’);
function url_filtered($fields)
{
if(isset($fields['url']))
unset($fields['url']);
return $fields;
}
?>
Step 3. Upload this file to your blog’s plugins folder ( /public_html/wp-content/plugins ). You can use FTP client or your host’s file manager to upload file.
Step 4. Now, log on in your WordPress backend and go to the Plugins page.
Step 5. There should be a new plugin named ‘Remove Website Field’. Click Activate to enable the plugin.
Great! you’ve removed the field. Go check on your blog!
Well after I removed the website field from comment form, I disabled keywordLuv and commentLuv because they don’t have any meaning without that field. Hope spammers will stare at me and go away for their other hunt!
About Suresh Khanal
This is another good way to protect our blog from spammers. My blog used to be a dofollow blog with commentluv plugin. However, I had to removed all of them last week because many spammers left comments on my blog just to get some backlinks. Since then, I haven’t seen those spammy comments anymore, so it is not necessary to remove the URL field on my blog yet.
Btw, why don’t you make your icttrends a nofollow blog?
Tuan @ Online News recently posted…The Advantages Of Blogging For Business
In my case those comments were completely unnecessary as I’ve already told the actual readers won’t leave URLs and those who leave URLs need not read those pages. What a funny requirement, isn’t it. Anyway, this taught me one WordPress hack. Now I can remove any box out from the comment form
This post made me think.. Well, I guess there are positive and negative effects if you decide to remove the URL field in the comments. You’ll either lose readers or the spammers lol! Great post, by the way
This is not about the blogs and websites where commenters are the readers but as I argued in case of my ICT Trends blog where readers are not commenters and commenters are not the readers of my blog. Can’t I remove it from there?
Suresh Khanal@SEO MMO Tips recently posted…Remove Website Field from Comment Form
How did you know that the actual readers don’t leave URL in their comments? Because right now, I’m a reader and I left my URL on this comment
jilianne @ website marketing tips recently posted…Finding Targeted Twitter Followers
Ohhwow Jilianne, this blog is about blogging and bloggers are my readers, so how could I think like you said? The context of my post is different. I’m talking about a blog that helps students to prepare exams. There, readers are not bloggers
Brilliant tutorial.
I agree with jilianne though, to me it seems that by removing the URL you might either lose readers (actually, people who comment) or spammers.
Jens P. Berget recently posted…All The WordPress Plugins I am using
I do understand your sincere concern. I won’t dare it here but I’m happy I removed on ICT Trends blog. Anyway, I guess the tutorial will be useful when you need to remove any of the field in comment form.
Suresh Khanal@SEO MMO Tips recently posted…SEO Link Building after Google Panda Update–Friday Gems 9
Reading the title of the post made me thinking who will want to remove the website field from comment form. After all bloggers look for new ways to get more visitors and more comments then why to remove an already existing feature which can get a backlink and maybe a dofollow backlink too.
I checked your icttrends computer exam tutorial blog after reading this post. Although most readers of your blog may be your students but still you have categories related to blogging, wordpress and monetization with posts having good number of comments from regular bloggers. You know links lead to backlinks and better search engine ranking. You could go for nofollow feature too. In my opinion you should not have removed website field.
It was a nice topic for discussion. Thanks for share, Suresh.
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ICT Trends is the foundation for this blog. I started to blog on ICT Trends but soon I realized that it could be better used for Computer Jobs Exam Preparation. That’s why I moved blogging to a new domain SEO MMO Tips. Though I don’t post about blogging in ICT Trends any more, I did not like to remove those posts (it could hamper to them who were getting links back to them). Or should I transport them into this blog?
I can’t think of removing Website URL box when I know how and why commentLuv, keywordLuv plugins got popularity. For the blogs about blogging and among bloggers its great to have a link to the commenter and to know the recent post of commenter is great!
I can see an other reason to remove the url form. It’s when you have a more serious blog and you want people to use their full name and email address and not their business names.
I don’t know why, but it seems more professional when you don’t see a url box, this is of course my opinion only, and I don’t know for sure if anyone else shares it.
Alex@Jocuri recently posted…Curse Formula Unu
I can’t think of removing from the blogs where I know my commenters too have websites. For blog like ICT Trends I thought it wiser to remove it.
Thanks Alex for your comment. Feels good to see you here.
Removing of URL is not he best option, i think removing the URL means shortage of readers and mostly bloggers wants to make their rank high ,and this step makes a negative effect .Thanks for this brilliant post
I agree. We need to analyze what suits where.
as stated above, removing URL field from comments form, does not seems to be a good option. Even otherwise, tutorial is good.
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Thank you Khan, I understand.
Suresh,
great points. There is definitely a time and place for removing comments from a blog.
IMO, it really does come down to the type of blog and the response you want. For a blog like this I think comments are must. You want to encourage community and encourage regular readers to comment.
But, like you said, there are many blogs were this may not be true. For those blogs you do not want to dilute your message and the people other places you only want to desired response (whatever that may be)
These blogs exist for either a specific purpose or a very very limited degree choices, nothing else.
T hanks for showing the way.
Gene recently posted…GLP 3 – How to Optimize to Blog and Convert Search Engine Traffic
Hi Gene, thank you for stopping by. I’m happy to know I did not do any wrong by removing that field.
As long as you have a reason to remove the URL from your blog’s comment section, than that is all that matters. It helps to understand your readers to make informed decisions on what changes to make to your blog. Obviously, for most blogs you don’t want to remove the URL, and there are many sites where you can comment but can’t leave a URL to your site/blog – such as news sites.
The interesting fact is many people that reply to this post, and suggest not removing the URL are thinking like bloggers, and not as visitors. Most visitors to a site (unless it is a blogging site) may not have their own site/blog. Let’s face it, only a small percentage of those online probably have one. If a person wants to comment, then they will comment regardless if they can leave a URL. I have had visitors leave a comment without a URL. Blogs should be about people, discussion and conversation, and not only about backlinks.
On another note, this post also shows what is possible with WordPress, and how customizable it is.
Paul Salmon recently posted…Enhance Your Interaction with a Touch Screen Laptop
Thank you Paul. Yea, as a blogger we can’t think of removing posts and friends should have suggested that way. Great to find somebody who shares my views. Thank you very much.
Hey Suresh
Just followed your link from Steve Scotts site.
So just checking out your site, some really great articles, love the deep footer at the bottom
I like the fact you have given the option to remove the comments from the site.
Sometimes you have to and its not all about backlinking, especially if it suits your needs, thats what matters at the end of the day.
People can always use the contact option if they want to ask a question etc, as the spammers are a total nightmare.
Great stuff Suresh, will be back for sure.
All the best
Zahid
Scotts post was magnificient, isn’t it? Glad to know footer draws attention of some good friends
But it seems I need to pull Facebook widget a bit up! its not working good there.
Thanks for giving the option, but I’m glad you haven’t removed from your website
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Hey! I did not talked about this blog to remove the box! I was talking about my another blog http://icttrends.com where the url box proved useless. This blog is about blogging and I know my readers are other bloggers! Bloggers DO have blogs and websites to leave a link to
I think there is need to have url fields in my blog as readers wants to leave a link
Nipon@ Indian Education recently posted…Results of Maharashtra MBA CET 2011 written test declared
You are absolutely true, but I’m talking about a blog where readers don’t have their own websites
Hi Suresh,
It is a good hack from being prevented from Spammers, but still there is an option available in the wordpress by activating you have to moderate all the comments before it appears online, that way you can delete the comments which are not related to the blog post and keep the blog clean and neat instead of having junk comments being display with website like or not.
Anyways nice information and thanks for sharing.
-Imran
Imran@shariffdotOrg recently posted…Why To Avoid Free Webhosting Services
Hi Imran, that is very true and most desirable for almost all of the blogs. In my case, for my ICT Trends, there is no use of URL box as my readers are students and candidates of exams. They don’t have their website or there is no meaning of that information. Its the matter of relevancy – Why should I ask his Grandpa’s date of birth when he’s to have his hair cut?
Hi Suresh, just followed your tutorial for my Exam Result blog with a thesis framework, but it is not working. Don’t know what might be exact reason, but its not working mate.
Sathish @ Make Money Online recently posted…The Traits Of A Reliable SEO Service Provider
If it is different to Thesis Framework, I’m not aware of it, otherwise, all this plugin does is to filter out the Website URL field while loading form. Please visit the plugin resource link to contact the creator, if he can better support you.
BTW, please make sure if it is due to your Cache plugin. Many times I have made this type of mistake. I toil hard and try to fix, but the changes are not effected because cache is still producing older content. Forgetful me!
Hi Surresh,
First of all, thanks for your tutorial. I need this since most of my visitors spamming by commenting my post with irrelevant topic. And most of them commenting every of my posts with the message “Thanks”, “Informative post”, “Bookmark your website” etc….
I don’t mind if they put their keywords in the name field. I love to help others by leave their backlink with the chosen keyword. But the problem is, they are not treat me as a contributor by leave spam comments. I hate to remove the “Website” field on my blog’s comment but I need too. Blogger should know on how to respect other bloggers by leave an informative comment which can help other readers to find more tips, guidelines and many more.
Anyway, thanks again for the tutorial. I much appreciate it.
Best regard,
Danial
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I also love to help other bloggers and truly understand we can’t stand strong without helping each other. That’s why I’ve installed commentLuv and keyWordLuv. I wish fellow bloggers make use of keywordLuv and let me know their name.
I had to remove website field from one of my blog, not just because of spammers, but in fact, it was totally irrelevant there.
Thank you for the comment.
Suresh URL field is the soul of the blog.You know the value of the park is because of public.Here URL field is the public of the blog.
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I agree Smith, but this tips is for the type of blogs where the readers don’t have websites to fill in URL field.
In this concern you are right.Thanks for communication
Smith@steam showers recently posted…Steam showers steam saunas steam cabins steam shower enclosures
Strange, but plugin doesn’t work for me. Perhaps, the problem is in my theme?
I am having the same issues as Rider. I am using the Twenty Eleven theme in the new version of WordPress 3.2.
Any ideas? I am setting up a site using WordPress that is not really meant to function as a blog, but simply as one article attempting to garner a “guestbook” for a family announcement. There is no need for the family members to be sharing a website URL, as many do not have their own! Not to mention it can be confusing for the less literate computer user.
Really like your very elegant spam filter. So simple! Is it a WordPress plugin?
AstroGremlin@WordPress 3.2 recently posted…To See the Good in People
I think this is not an exact way to block spammers.because you know everybody mentality.All want to place the url of their website link.So the best strategy to moderate comments and don’t remove those comments which are not related to blog’s post.So in that way,you ll get readers and people ll get links if they ll post unique and quality content in their comment.
Thanks!
So, you basically agree that website field is important to attract webmasters to comment.. It is how you get free content and you move up on SERPs.. Bloggers should learn to fight spam not comments..
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Hi Suresh,
I have one quick question. Say I have just started my blog which is based on basics of web designing and other minor topics related to it. I am not good in SEO. So can I comment on similar blogs as mine? Please suggest me.
Thanks in advance,
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Hi Shapingidea,
Blog commenting is good not only for link building but it can be the best method to build up a strong relationship among the people working in the fields related to your blog. When you comment on related blog, the blog owner and the regular readers of that blog get a point to reach up to you. If you comment on blogs totally different than yours, the traffic you’ll receive through comment links won’t be targeted. Google also favor the links from related sites. So, its good to comment on similar blogs.
you are right suresh but people MOSTLY using Blog commenting just for increase there Traffic. Not only other people we are also commenting just for increase our visitors. Life is very fast today we have no time to spend with our friends and relatives. We know that for what we and the other peoples are using Blog commenting. This is a popular way to increase visitors.
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Hi, I created, uploaded and activated this php file but it made no difference. I’m guessing it doesn’t work on all templates.
My stance is that any advantage in traffic from having bloggers comment is totally outweighed by nuisance spam comments.
There really should be a robust ready-made plugin that removes the website field as well as any url’s in posts if one wishes.
I would have thought by now there would be a bunch of them available.
I think this trick was copied from techhacking.com “How to remove the website field from the comment form”. By the way tnx 4 this @Suresh
arafinshaon@How2Blog recently posted…How to Download Full Version Software for Free
To be honest I wish people would start looking at the other appoarch by stopping these bots finding your site, they are using major search engines to sniff you out,
All Internet site owners should check out at tactics of preventing spam by being significantly less of a target, instead than combating the spam spiders when they are tapping at your website
The particular issue with free engines for example word press,joomla,phpbb is bot runner’s scanning for susceptible internet sites for spamming comments or security risks to inject malware he or she can do this since most of these opensources by default leave an electronic digital footprint on primary search engines for instance Google’s, I have published a blog post in regards to this on my website you should check it out, it is ideal for halting spam and malicious software, stop being detected as a target!
stop wordpress comment spam
liam williams
nice article, certainly I’m going to implement this in my site..
thank, tc
Thanks for the tips; what I am trying to do is give people the option to enter their website, but make it so that it is not required for the people that don’t have a website.
I’ll keep looking for answers, but thanks for these tips.
Dealing with spammers is never fun, personally I feel if you create great content it doesn’t matter if you offer backlinking to your subscribers. On the other side of the coin some think you may be limiting engagement to some by not offering those options, if they have a comparable source of information what attracts them you your site??? Thanks for the write up, it’s definitely nice to knwo your options.
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