Static Site Generators like Jekyll, Gatsby, and Hugo are rising for various reasons such as speed, version control, data protection, and security. As a result, many bloggers, especially ones in the technical field, are gradually switching to Static Site Generators for their blog sites. Even if they use static sites, they usually expect one dynamic thing: comments. So, in this article, I'll be explaining how to add comments to your static site.
When to add Comments to a Static Blog?
Jeff Atwood at CodingHorror asserts that a blog without comments isn't a blog. However, in my opinion, all static blogs don't need comments. It's completely the preference of the blogger!
Like to have more user engagements?
Need to know what visitors think about your blog posts?
Want to let visitors contribute to your content?
Love to increase on-page SEO using the content generated by users?
If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you can add a commenting system for your website.
Unlike WordPress, static sites don't come with in-built commenting systems. Therefore, you'll need to choose a third-party commenting system for your static site comments. In this article, I'll be using Hyvor Talk.
Why Hyvor Talk?
Hyvor Talk is a third-party commenting system.
First, you can install it with ease - it's just a copy & paste task.
Next, it has an endless list of features making it a fully-functional commenting platform. Here are some hand-picked features that I think will be useful for you as a static blog enthusiast.
Easy installation
Full customizability
Easy and powerful moderation - Hyvor Talk has a powerful AJAX-based moderation console and moderation features.
Previously used other commenting plugins? You can import your comments.
No ads are shown.
Fast Loading. Lazy loading is supported by default.
How To Add Comments To A Static Blog?
Adding comments to your static blog sites is straightforward with Hyvor Talk and depends on the static generator you use.
As most static generators use HTML-based template systems, you can easily copy & paste the manual code (HTML + JS) into your template. The best place is after the blog post content and before the footer.
If you have such templates on your static site:
First, you'll need to log in to the console.
Then, get your installation code.
Add it to your template in the correct place.
On official docs: How to manually install Hyvor Talk?
If you have a react-powered blog, you can use our React plugin. If you need a more detailed guide on installing Hyvor Talk on a react-powered blog see this guide: How to add comments to a react-powered blog?
Here are some other tutorials on adding Hyvor Talk comments to some famous static site generators.
Hexo
Jekyll
Gatsby
Please comment below if you have any questions or problems regarding adding comments to your static site.
How fast is Hyvor Talk?
Hyvor Talk makes a minimal amount of HTTP requests. All the Javascript files are bundled into one file. Additionally, Hyvor Talk serves minified and GZIP Compressed Javascript and CSS files.
Hyvor Talk uses inline SVG images for reaction emojis which cuts the cost of HTTP requests and makes the loading much faster. (Oh, I forgot. Hyvor Talk comes with a reaction plugin too!)
Thankfully, Hyvor Talk doesn't place any third-party scripts (ads or analytics) on your website which makes Hyvor Talk much faster than its alternatives. It makes Hyvor Talk a suitable solution for static site comments.
Here's the best thing: Hyvor Talk supports Lazy Loading by default. See Loading Modes for more details. There's zero impact on your website performance if you use Lazy Loading.
SEO with Static Site Comments
User-generated content is an easy and effective method to improve your site's SEO.
One of the most asked questions is "does Google index Hyvor Talk comments?"
The answer is "Yes".
Google will index the comments and those fresh content will help you rank better on SERP.
How to Prevent Spam?
Most blogs, usually large ones, face the problem of spam.
When using a CMS that comes with a native comment system, like WordPress, preventing spam is a hard task. That's why most famous sites use a third-party commenting platform on their sites. However, Hyvor Talk will help you to make spam comments minimal.
Hyvor Talk has an in-built spam detector that works on multiple factors. All the guest comments are protected with Google Recaptcha to prevent bot spam.
You can also set custom automated moderation rules to moderate the comments in the way you need.
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed when to add comments to static sites, why it's important, and why Hyvor Talk is the best option. I hope you enjoyed the article. If you have any questions please comment below. ✌
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