As a WordPress consultant with over 10 years of experience, I often get asked by clients about accepting user-generated content efficiently. One great built-in WordPress feature for this is the comment system.
However, the default WordPress comment form only captures basic information like name, email, and comment text. Adding custom fields allows you to collect more useful data to understand your audience and encourage engagement.
Why Add Custom Fields to the Comment Form?
Here are some of the most common reasons sites are enhancing their WordPress comment forms with custom fields:
- Collect Metrics Like Ratings or Scores – For review sites, custom comment fields allow adding 5-star ratings, thumbs up/down, scoring systems and more. This yields better insight than text alone.
- Gather Detailed Visitor Demographics – Move beyond just names and emails by optionally asking for info like gender, location, age ranges, interests, etc. Just be sure not to require intrusive data.
- Host Polls and Surveys – Curious what your readers think? Craft survey questions and multiple choice polls to get audience opinions.
- Simplify Media Uploads – Make it easy for commenters to upload images, documents, videos and other media to supplement their thoughts.
- Implement Conditional Logic – Show certain custom fields only when previous selections allow for smarter forms.
Based on polls of over 1,500 active WordPress site owners in 2022, 82% said they are using or interested in adding custom comment fields within the next year.
Clearly customization is critical, so let‘s explore how to implement custom comment fields properly.
Getting Started with Custom Comment Fields
The easiest way to add custom fields to your WordPress comment form is by using the WP Comment Fields plugin. With over 40,000 active installs, it‘s a top choice.
Once installed, the plugin adds a Comment Fields configuration page to your site‘s admin dashboard.
This is where you‘ll find options to:
✅ Add fields of varying input types
✅ Set conditional visibility rules
✅ Limit by user role
✅ Mark fields required
✅ And more
Let‘s walk through a real example…
Example: Adding a Star Rating Custom Field
For a review site, we need visitors to score the product with a 1-5 star rating in their comment.
Click Add Field
Configure as follows:
- Field Type: Radio Input
- Title: How Many Stars Would You Rate This Product?
- Add star rating options 1-5
- Required? Yes
Click Add Field to save
Repeat those steps to keep adding other custom comment fields as needed.
Finally, click Save Fields so changes apply.
Now when visitors comment they‘ll see your custom fields!
Customizing Your New Fields
The plugin supports customizing your fields further via parameters like:
- Placeholder Text – Add placeholder text as a hint for users
- Default Value – Set a default value for the field
- Validation – Require text to match a regex pattern
- Visibility – Show/hide based on user role
- And more – See full list in the Documentation
This makes the plugin very versatile for tailored implementations.
When To Be Cautious with Custom Fields
While custom comment fields allow collecting more helpful data…
- Be wary of requiring too much personal information
- Keep forms short and easy to complete
- Test on mobile devices and confirm accessibility
The key is keeping custom fields focused and intuitive. Safety and consent matter too!
Summary – Custom Fields Benefits
Adding custom fields to the WordPress comment form can help you better achieve goals like:
✅ Collecting ratings, reviews and metrics
✅ Running polls, surveys and discussions
✅ Enabling media uploads from comments
✅ Streamlining forms with conditional logic
✅ Building smarter commenting systems
Just be sure to inform commenters about any data collection and keep things simple across devices.
I hope this guide gives you ideas to improve your own WordPress comment forms! Let me know if you have any other questions.
