Last updated: May 10th, 2017.
One of the most common questions I get asked is how I get my WordPress blog comments to redirect to a fancy little “thank you” page.
In fact, I probably get one or two emails every week asking me how it is done.
Getting your comments to redirect like this is an extremely good idea because it allows you to develop your relationship with first-time commenters as well as getting them closer to sign up to that ever important mailing list we all need.
In this post I’m going to show you how you can redirect your first time comments to a squeeze page.
Wait… a Squeeze Page?
I kind of threw in a new term there didn’t I?
Well, a squeeze page is essentially a page on your blog or website that you use to “squeeze” people through to another area of your site. It’s also known as a landing page.
The most common squeeze pages are ones that act as a pre-sale landing page and prime the reader to buy some product that is going to appear after the next click through.
Research has shown that these squeeze pages work extremely well, especially when the visitor wasn’t thinking about signing up or purchasing something. Its a lot like planting the seeds of a sale in their mind. A sweet little “thank you” page after a visitor leaves his or her first comment on your site is a powerful way to solidify the relationship.
What should I put on my squeeze/thank you page?
What you add on your thank you page is extremely important. It doesn’t have to be perfect but it does have to have some kind of rhyme and reason. Some ideas include:
- A very personal message
Commenting on a site is an intimate thing. This comment redirect idea is a way to make it even more personal and give people a chance to get to know you. For that reason I make my squeeze page very personal and inject a little bit of humor. The more informal the better. - Your mailing list sign up
The idea here is that if someone just left a comment they are probably only a few steps away from signing up to your mailing list. Give them a few reasons why they should take that step and make it easy by having the form in the content. - Your favorite posts
I also like to show the commenter some of my favorite posts and let them know that they might like to check them out as well. I even include some guest posts on other sites. What if they leave? I don’t care. The idea is to show them who I am and what I can do.
Actually, I would love to build a plugin that takes the category the person was just commenting on and then develops a list of posts in the category as well as a related message to show them on the squeeze page. That would convert like mission.
So how do you redirect first time comments?
Okay so how do you get first time comments to redirect to a thank you page? Well, its actually pretty easy.
- Build your squeeze/thank you page
First off, go into WordPress and hit PAGES and design your page. Make sure it includes the elements above and, importantly, make sure it includes an individual sign up form that is differently labeled from your others so you know how many people are signing up from that page. - Install the plugin
Head over to your Plugins search area by going PLUGINS > ADD NEW and then hitting search. Type in “Comment Redirect by Yoast” and install it when it comes up. - Set the page
Once the plugin is installed it will appear in the Plugins sidebar (normally plugins install in the Settings area), just click it and set it to your newly crafted page.
That’s it! Now all of your first-time commenters will be sent to that page and, hopefully, sign up to your mailing list.
Want to test mine?
If you haven’t left a comment on Blog Tyrant before go ahead and leave a comment below and, if it’s your first time, you’ll be redirected to the thank you page that we just built above.
Let’s see how it works and looks like 🙂
Thank you for this tip.
Meat plugin
Haha, meat plugin.
indeed, let me see how your squeeze page looks like…
I need to see this! 😀
A great answer to this question you pulled out of your email files. Redirecting the first time commentators to a squeeze page is a wonderful idea. I haven’t been doing this and shudder to think of the lost opportunity.
Let’s see what it looks like. This is my third try. I haven’t seen it yet.
Very handsome indeed.
Thanks for this tip BT! I am excited to try it out. BTW, as a new blogger, you have been a extremely inspirational to me so thanks for that!
Keep up the great work! I really appreciate what you do 🙂
I have commented before, so I have to use another address, I guess.
Here goes:
This is really, really brilliant. I’ll definitely be implementing it soon. 🙂 But first, I’ve got to get my new site up and running (hopefully later this week!)
Thanks for sharing – always great stuff here!
Good job… You just help me solved a problem. I’ll definitely use this to direct commentators to my newsletter sign up page.
I’m trying yours now
Hey, nice touch, that’s very useful advice indeed! I wish I had a blog I could try it out on 😉
Thank you for the tutorial.
So, if I go ahead and create a new thank you page (love that idea!) how would I prevent it from being published on my site as ‘another’ page in my nav bar? Does the Yoast plug-in take care of hiding it for me?
Ugh, such a newbie blogger – but am LOVIN’ the learning curve! Thank you for all you share.
The good news with WordPress is that new pages are hidden by default. Unless you go into Settings > Appearance > Menus and manually drag and drop your “thank you” page into your main navigation menu, it should not show up.
If you’re a beginner, here’s a website with great, easy-to-understand video tutorials on using WordPress:
http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/wp101-training/
I wish those videos had been available when I first started out. Would have saved me a lot of time and frustration, ha ha.
Good luck!
Great post, Tyrant. A nice tool to include.
Thanks! I’ve been looking for a plugin like this. Now let’s see your squeeze page! 🙂
Ok, Handsome, show me that Thank You Page!
(great info — thanks for the how to)
Thanks for the tip. It will be incredibly beneficial to me in the days ahead.
Great idea on the comment re-direct. Will have to test it out.
Great post!
Testing this feature, thanks!
Oh this is such a great tip! Thanks so much. I plan to share this widely. I have a lot of friends who have Word Press blogs. And, yes, you are VERY handsome.
Hey Blog Tyrant.
I wish that you would say more directly in your posts if what your about to share only works on Worpress, as I’m sure a fair portion of your readers are still using Blogger (including me).
Thanks!
TouchGamer
I said it in the first sentence! Ha ha. Sorry.
I know, but I didn’t realize at the time that that meant it specifically wouldn’t work on blogger. Like I said, a little more directly at the beginning would be nice, so I know whether I should take the time to read it. Anyway, it’s no big deal.
This is a great idea and away to bond with your subscribers and add more value to their visit to your website.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, for sharing this information.
Appreciate it!
Good idea, mining your inbox for ideas on future posts. If you get more than 3 people asking the same question, it’s probably a common problem worth writing a post about.
It’s true, such a small percentage of readers will write a comment, so they are to be treated well. I was a “lurker” for a long time, until I bucked up the courage to start commenting and adding to the conversation.
Hey once again thank you. This is great. I really appreciate your expertise.
Always wondered how to do this. Thanks for sharing such a great tip!
Thanks for the post. Sounds like a great way to drop engaged users into your conversion funnel.
I was just about to ask the same question to you and you don’t know how great I felt when I read the tile of your blog post in my email. Thanks very much Tyrant. I should buy you a beer.
Regards
Ah yes, I should include that in the post. There is a plugin for that too called Exclude Pages from Navigation.
Thanks Tyrant, that was very helpful. The plugin has worked well for me.
This is one of the most useful articles ever. I hope I win a conference call with you, I’m going to tweet like crazy! I could learn so much! this blog is my bible!
I love this, But is that not irritating?
Being redirected?
It cannot really be irritating unless you do all wrong. The idea here is to redirect your commentators to a custom thank you page and probably have some more calls to action, say a request to follow you on Twitter or Facebook, or to join your newsletter.
If anything, the plugin only redirects to pages within your blog only, not to any random page on the internet.
I am testing if this works :).
great its working……but I have disqus implemented on my site………will it work with disqus as well?
Just curious :p
Let’s check how it works.
Gonna try this out!
What a great idea! Thanks for the tip and info about the free plugin.
I hope this doesn’t sound like too simple a question, but should we put any SEO in these thank you pages?
Not a simple question. I wouldn’t bother, it’s more about offering something to current users as opposed to finding new ones.
I’ve done exactly that, and it converts almost 2.5 percent of my first time commenters. Which is a big number for me. Thanks for the lovely write up. I bet there are several bloggers who do not really do this.
This is great stuff Tyrant… I’ve been following you for awhile now. Have yet to make a comment. This has totally encouraged me to do so. Would love to see what happens. Man, you really are The Blog Tyrant!! Awesome post bud!
Ok, I’ve got a question for you buddy. I’m sure it’s simple but since I’m new in the self-hosting scene I’m oblivious to the answer. How do I add a individual sign up form? :-/
Do you use Aweber?
I haven’t just yet… but I can certainly look into it. I love this feature!! 🙂
Check out my post on Aweber. Might help.
https://www.blogtyrant.com/switch-aweber-blog-email-list/
Thanks BT!! You’re awesome bud!!
Is there a way of doing it without using a plugin? I don’t like using plugin too much when a deign a web based on wordpress.
Nope. Don’t think so.
I’ll have to check that plugin out. Have you had any problems with it turning folks away? I often comment and then go back and read other comments. I’m curious how your approach has affected your bounce rates, etc.
I’ve had only positive feedback from it. I guess people can always click the back button?
sweet stuff! I left a comment already but trying to see one more time how everything is set up. 2 Thumbs and 2 big toes up for this article!
Ha ha. Nice.
Thanks for the article. I would like to see how it looks.
No problems Al.
Well I will tell you how handsome you are!!
I’d love a blog article titled “What to do when you don’t know what to do!” I have a special page I use to keep all the bits of wisdom you share, this one will be there. The thing is that I often know I’ve seen something that is perfectly relevant to the problem I am having in your comments but can never find it again.
I hunted for ages to find again, nobody knew what I was on about.
Now to that comments squeeze page…
ciao Lisa
Nice work Lisa. Good ideas as always.
Hello, just checking out your squeeze page. Thanks for the tip!
This post’s from 2011 it seems from the old comments. I wonder how well it still works…
Hey Chris, thanks for stopping by! Until we update this article, there’s a more recent tutorial here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/redirect-your-users-attention-with-comment-redirect/. Hope that helps.
It’s help Keri, Thanks !