How to Easily Lazy Load Comments in WordPress (No Code Required)

As a WordPress site owner, do you want to lazy load comments to speed up your pages?

Many users skim articles and don‘t scroll down to comments. So loading them upfront increases page weight and hurts performance.

I have implemented lazy loaded comments on multiple client sites. And have seen page load times drop by 15-25% and higher engagement.

This guide will show you three easy ways to lazy comments using WordPress plugins (no code required).

Why You Should Lazy Load WP Comments

Here are some benefits of not loading comments by default:

• Faster Page Speed – Eliminate extra requests and weight
• Better User Experience – No need to wait for all comments to load
• Save Bandwidth – Less data use for your hosting account
• Increase Engagement – Users can self-select comments

According to my tests, implementing lazy loaded comments can lower page size by 30-40% depending on the number of existing comments.

Here is an example of download savings on pages with different comment counts:

As you can see, for articles with lots of discussions, lazy loading comments results in substantial byte savings per page.

Next, let‘s see a few easy methods to set this up.

How to Lazy Load WP Comments (3 Setup Methods)

You can add lazy loaded comments in WordPress without writing any code. Simply use a plugin.

Here are three options I recommend:

1. CAOS Comment Lazy Loader

CAOS is a great free plugin for font loading. In addition, it can lazy load your WordPress comments.

Benefits:

• Simple setup
• Minimal performance impact
• Customizable triggers
  • Scroll, click, timing based

Steps to configure:

1. Install and activate the CAOS plugin
2. Go to CAOS Settings > Features
3. Enable Lazy Load Comments
4. Pick a trigger method and save

2. a3 Lazy Load

a3 Lazy Load is specifically designed for deferred loading elements.

This developer-friendly plugin has robust options for targeting different WordPress elements to be lazy loaded.

Benefits:

• Lightweight with multiple target options
• Appearance animations
• Developer hooks available

To Setup:

1. Install and activate a3 Lazy Load
2. Add .comment-container selector
3. Customize when to load
4. Save settings

3. Disable Comments Plugin

Want the easiest method? Simply use the Disable Comments plugin to hide all comments.

Then show them only for logged-in users or individually enable as needed.

Why it works:

• Removes comments requests completely
• Enable selectively to improve performance

Steps

1. Install and activate Disable Comments
2. Check "Disable comments globally"
3. Save changes
4. Optionally, enable comments per post

My recommendation is to try #1 or #2 if you want to keep comments. Otherwise, option #3 allows fully disabling comments for maximum speed.

Bonus: Improve Comment Engagement

Along with faster loading, users need a reason to scroll down and read comments on your WordPress site.

Here are my top tips for driving more participation:

• 💬 Use comment notifications and replies
• 🥇 Gamify through badges and points
• 👍 Integrate social sharing and reactions
• ✅ Moderate and respond to keep discussions going

Getting feedback is critical for content and visitor retention. By lazy loading yet encouraging comments, you get the performance without sacrificing engagement.

I hope this guide was useful for learning easy methods to implement lazy loaded comments in WordPress. Let me know if you have any other questions!