One of the biggest questions we get from clients is either how to turn comment email alerts on or off, depending on the site. Before digging into the email settings, make sure your email address is set correctly in WordPress. That way you’ll get these messages when they are sent.
Once you’re logged in, head to Settings > General. Check the Email Address set right below your URL. If it’s not an email address you use or have access to, change it + click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page. You may need to confirm the change by checking your inbox.
Comment email alerts
WordPress has an option to get emails every time a comment is left on your website. The trick is that you need to tell your site you actually want to get those emails… assuming that’s what you want.
Head to Settings > Discussion to check the single checkbox next to “Email me whenever… Anyone posts a comment”. By checking that box — and saving your changes — you’ll be sent an email whenever there’s a comment on your site.
If you get a lot of comments, it can be overwhelming to get an email for each one. In that case, I’d recommend not checking the comment alert checkbox. Instead set a recurring task to review your comments every day or week.
For sites that get less than a handful each month, it’s nice to get new comment email alerts. That way you don’t have to live in your WordPress dashboard. Plus, you can reply in a timely manner to those that are engaging with your content.
The comment email alerts that you’ll get from WordPress will give you more info than you probably want. (Including the author’s IP address + links to approve, trash or spam the comment right from your inbox.)
What I do enjoy about the “Please moderate” emails that WordPress sends out is that it also lists how many other comments you have waiting for approval. This is a nice way to keep on top of the comments being left on your site + making sure that you didn’t miss any with the last alert email you received.
If you’re running out of patience with less than desirable comments, here’s how to ditch spam comments.