In April 2013 Google announced Google+ comments for the Blogger platform, since then WordPress users were waiting to get this feature on their WordPress websites. I have heard that there are few plugins available which can enable Google+ comments in WordPress.
From last couple of days, I have been testing out few plugins, which promises to add the Google plus Comment feature to WordPress without any issues and with less or no coding . I found two great WordPress plugins, which works out of the box and have got positive responses from users.
Related post: Add Google plus button to website
Advantages of using Google+ comments in WordPress
- More comments on your blog.
- Increase in visibility.
- Can build up good community on Google plus for your blog.
- Increase in fan following on Google +.
Disadvantages of Google+ comments in WordPress
Comments doesn’t held up in queue for moderation so you have to monitor the comments on daily basis to filter out non-relevant comments (you know what I mean here :)). if you are running a large blog with hundreds or thousands of posts then the number of comments you may get on daily basis could be more and monitor them every day could be a tedious task for you.
Before we discuss about plugins, let’s see how Google+ comments will look on your blog.
Cool huh!!
Let’s talk about plugins, now. Following are the plugins, which can add Google comment box to your blog, just like the one shown in the above picture –
1) Google+ Comments for WordPress
2) Comments evolved
1) Google+ Comments for WordPress plugin
Installation:
Step 1: Download the plugin from WordPress page: Google plus Comments for WordPress and upload it to /wp-content/plugins folder via ftp or cpanel. You can also download the plugin directly from WordPress dashboard (Dashboard » Plugins » Add New : search for Google + comments)
Step 2: Activate the plugin. Update the plugin settings if required and save settings.
That’s all, The plugin should be working by now on your WordPress blog.
Manual placement of Comments:
Above steps will automatically add a Google plus comments section at the end of the each article, however if you want to manually place them to somewhere on your blog then you can use the below shortcodes:
» You can place below code in your theme’s template to manually positioned the comment section.
echo do_shortcode('[gp-comments]');
» Use the below code when you want the comments to be appeared for the specific page/post. Just use the code while writing post/page.
[gp-comments]
» If you do not wish to have the comments on certain post ids, such as: 111, 10, 223, 47 then use the below short code
if (!is_single(array(111,10,223,47))) {echo do_shortcode('[gp-comments]');}
That’s all you should know about this plugin to get it worked for your blog.
2) Comments evolved Plugin
This plugin works more or less the same as the above one. I just mentioned it because in case if you face any issue with the above one (we tested the above plugin and we didn’t face any issue, however it depends on your theme template too) then this can be a good alternative for you
Step 1: Download the plugin from here: Comments evolved WordPress plugin and activate it.
Step 2: Find the configuration settings at Comments » G+ comments.
Conclusion
Adding Google+ comments to the WordPress site can be good in terms of traffic and visibility. As Google plus is popular social networking sites now a days, the number of comments on your blog is surely gonna increase. I have heard positive feedback from other bloggers too regarding them. If you have a good fan following on Gplus then there is no excuse of not trying this feature.
Let us know if you face any issues while setting up the Google+ comments in WordPress.
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