Blogs can—and should—spark conversations. Allowing comments on your blog can help you learn more about your users, improve your user experience, and increase your site’s credibility. However, beware: Allowing comments could also blow up in your face if an army of spammers, trolls, and hostile citizens use it as a soapbox.

Before you open up your blog for comments, make sure you have a concise comment policy in place to handle the good, the bad, and the bizarre. Don’t be surprised if you get comments and criticisms that have nothing to do with your post. If you want to delete offensive comments, tell your readers that directly. Before you remove a comment, take a screenshot so you have a record in case you need it in the future.

We recommend monitoring your comments daily so you can keep engagement fresh and catch offensive content quickly. Have a member of your team to dedicate roughly 4 hours a week to approving of and responding to comments. If you can’t dedicate the time to managing the section, you aren’t going to benefit much from it and are better off keeping the comments closed.