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WPBeginner» Blog» Plugins» How to Install and Setup Yoast Comment Hacks for WordPress

How to Install and Setup Yoast Comment Hacks for WordPress

Last updated on July 23rd, 2015 by Editorial Staff
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How to Install and Setup Yoast Comment Hacks for WordPress

Want an additional set of tools to help with WordPress comment management and moderation? The team behind the popular Yoast SEO plugin, released a new plugin called Yoast Comment Hacks which brings some of the much wanted comment features together. In this article, we will show you how to install and setup Yoast Comment Hacks for WordPress.

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Yoast Comment Hacks Features

Yoast Comment Hacks

By default, the only way to engage with WordPress comments is by replying to them. While that’s great, it can be better. Yoast Comment Hacks allows you to do more than just replying to user comments. Here are some of it’s features:

  • You can email a comment author directly from your WordPress admin area.
  • You can email all users who commented on a post.
  • Yoast Comment Hacks provides a cleaner comment notification email.
  • You can redirect your first time commenters to any page on your site (thank you page etc).
  • You can update the parent comment ID.

How to Setup Yoast Comment Hacks Plugin for WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Yoast Comment Hacks plugin. Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Comment Hacks to configure the plugin.

Yoast Comment Hack minimum comment length

The settings page is divided into four different tabs. By default, you will land on the Minimum Comment Length tab.

As the name suggests, this is where you define the minimum numbers of character a comment must have. You also get to decide the error users will see if their comment is too short.

Once you have made the changes, click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.

The next tab on the plugin’s settings page is labeled Email Links. Yoast Comment Hacks plugin allows you to send emails to individual comment authors as well as all users who left comment on a specific post. This page allows you to modify the comment templates.

Email Links settings in Yoast Comment Hacks

Encouraging first time commenters will make them feel welcome on your site. Yoast Comment Hacks plugin allows you to welcome your first time commenters by redirecting them to a specific page after they leave their first comment. This can be a personalized thank you page.

First you will need to create a WordPress page where you want to send your first time commenters. This page can have links to the important posts on your site, how users can get the most out of your site, special discounts, etc.

After publishing this page, come back to plugin’s settings page and then click on Comment redirect tab.

Redirect first time commenter

Select the page you just created from the drop down menu and then click on the Save Changes button.

Yoast Comment Hacks plugin also cleans up the default WordPress new comment notification emails. This option is enabled by default, but you can disable it by visiting the plugin’s settings page and clicking on the Clean emails tab.

Send cleaner comment notification emails

Uncheck the box next to Clean comment emails option and then click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Sending Email To Commenters in WordPress

One of the neat features of Yoast Comment Hacks is the ability to send emails to commenters. Once you have setup the plugin, you need to visit the comments page in your WordPress admin.

You will notice a new link below each comment to send email to that particular comment author.

Email Comment Author

You can also send email to all users who have left a comment on a particular post. Simply open the post in WordPress while logged in to your administrator account. You will see an email icon in your admin bar.

Email all commenters on a WordPress post

If you are having trouble sending or receiving email from your WordPress site, then follow our tutorial on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

Updating Comment Parent ID

There are times when users accidentally leave a top level comment when they really wanted their comment to be left as a reply.

There was no easy way to fix that until now. Yoast Comment Hacks allow you to update the parent comment ID from the comment edit screen, so you can fix any errors.

Comment Parent ID

Bonus Comment Hacks

Yoast’s Comment Hacks plugin adds some very useful hacks to WordPress comments. However, there are many more tricks and hacks that can improve the commenting experience on your site. Here are some useful comment hacks that you can implement right away:

  • You can start by allowing users to subscribe to comments on your site.
  • If you are using comment subscriptions, then you may want to highlight new comments for returning visitors.
  • Tired of dealing with too short or too lengthy comments? Limit comment length on your site by setting a maximum and minimum comment length.
  • You can even notify users when their comment is approved.

We hope that this article helped you install and setup Yoast Comment Hacks plugin for your WordPress site. You may also want to take a look at our guide on how to style your WordPress comments layout.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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13 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Johnny says:
    Jun 8, 2016 at 11:02 pm

    Does this plugin give option to leave comments by logging in with social accounts ie facebook twiiter and also wordpress and google

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 9, 2016 at 8:15 pm

      No, it does not.

      Reply
  2. sarah nikol says:
    Apr 7, 2016 at 3:17 am

    Hey,
    I was looking for such a great article that I learn plunging a good post and an excellent plugin I think It will be. I have read this post and installed the plugin instantly, Thanks a lot for great sharing us with online
    With Regards,
    Sarah.

    Reply
  3. Sue Bride says:
    Jul 20, 2015 at 3:44 pm

    I’d be concerned about emailing either individuals or all those who comment on a post because of not having permission. The emails might be marked as spam. What do you think?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 21, 2015 at 1:03 pm

      Yes, that’s a possibility.

      Reply
  4. Olek says:
    Jul 20, 2015 at 3:20 am

    Hey Guys,

    could Yoast Comment Hacks be integrated with Disqus?

    do you know if there is a plugin which would subscribe to newsletter (e.g. Getresponse), everyone who has left a comment on Disqus?

    Thanks for your help.

    Best regards, Olek

    Reply
    • Amrit says:
      Oct 24, 2015 at 5:12 am

      I need it too.

      Reply
  5. Connor Rickett says:
    Jul 17, 2015 at 4:00 am

    It’s a good beginning. WordPress definitely needs to step up their commenting system, so maybe they’ll see this as a place to start. Yoast is high profile enough they’ll almost have to take a hint. I’d love to see users be able to comment on specific parts of the post, for one thing, tag each other, and so on.

    I can’t say I’m looking forward to all of the, “Hey everyone! I saw you liked my post enough to comment on–well, wait until you see THESE posts!” emails this plugin will no doubt spawn though. Is there a way to disable being emailed about a comment on the user end?

    Reply
  6. sarfraz khan says:
    Jul 16, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    Hi very good post and a good plugin I think It will be . I have read this post and installed the plugin instantly but after installing the theme of the comment section is the same . Is it that the plugin does not change the theme but adds additional features only ?

    Reply
  7. Per Søderlind says:
    Jul 16, 2015 at 7:38 am

    Nice plugin. We also use Multi Author Comment Notification alot.

    Reply
  8. Santhosh Veer says:
    Jul 16, 2015 at 12:06 am

    is there any benefit by using this plugin

    Reply
  9. DepritoNET says:
    Jul 15, 2015 at 10:22 am

    Nice new plugin…
    But still confuse with “top level comment”.. what you mean top level comment?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 15, 2015 at 9:02 pm

      If a comment gets any replies then it becomes top level comment under nested comments.

      Reply

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