To disable website/url field in genesis framework comment form, you need to add code to your functions.php file. You can also use a plugin to accomplish this task. But adding raw code, saves precious loading time.
Spammers have always been rampant about adding their website or post urls in comment forms.
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This creates trouble for webmasters who need to save their blog seo for better ranking.
In genesis framework and its child themes, different hooks and filters are used to customize the blog theme.
By removing the website/url from the comment box, users need not enter website url while making comments. Most of the common people don’t have a website or blog, to input in the comment form.
For these kind of naive people, the website url is a redundant field.
Generally, comment form consists of name, email and website url fields. The first two fields are mandatory for many themes and blogs. But the url field is optional many-a-times.
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But visitors think that it is also necessary to write comments on your article.
To remove url field from comment form in genesis, you can follow one of these two methods.
Method #1 – Include PHP code in functions.php file
As mentioned above, you can open your functions.php file in your favorite editor like Notepad or third-party application like Notepad++.
Then add the following code to the end of the file. You can just copy and paste from here.
add_filter( 'genesis_comment_form_args', 'url_filtered' );
add_filter( 'comment_form_default_fields', 'url_filtered' );
function url_filtered( $fields ) {
if ( isset( $fields['url'] ) )
unset( $fields['url'] );
if ( isset( $fields['fields']['url'] ) )
unset( $fields['fields']['url'] );
return $fields;
}Source: https://gist.github.com/edalis/9721629#file-remove-url-field-comment-form-php-L4
If you don’t get any errors, typical result would look like the above. It worked for me without any issues. I’m using DreamHost and Genesis child theme Authority Pro for the tested blog.
Where to Add the Above Code
You can find different PHP codes to include in your functions.php to remove url in genesis comment forms.
This can be in the child themes like Authority Pro or any other theme. You can find the location of functions.php file at the following path –
/home/userxxx/sitexxx/wp-content/themes/authority-pro userxxx = username of your account on your host sitexxx = website location folder name on your host
This is the typical path, but can vary from host to host.
Method #2: Using a Plugin to remove Website/URL in Genesis
There are a few WordPress plugins which can disable the website url in the comment form for genesis framework and its child themes. I did not try these plugins, but are sourced from different sites.
As per the documentation of plugin homepage and other blogs, they use the hooks and filters provided by default wordpress system. So, this works in general for any theme and should work for genesis also.
Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools by QuantumCloud
This improves blog comment quality and reduce comment spamming. You can remove author link and other links from user comments. It has around 8000+ installations as of May 2020. Updated to the latest version.
It is mentioned on the plugin page, that it can remove website field from comment form.
Once you install the plugin, go to Settings –> QC CLR Settings. Select the necessary option that says “Remove WEBSITE field from Comment Form” and click on “Save Changes”.
Plugin Page Link : https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-link-remove/
This should work for Genesis framework, but I have not tested it.
Remove Comment Website/URL Box by Mark Hodder
This plugin specially removes the website/url box from WordPress comment form. The plugin page also states that it works on Genesis 2.X. But the plugin is 4 years old and has only 1000+ active installations.
There are no options for this plugin. Just activate the plugin and it works.
Link Page URL – https://wordpress.org/plugins/remove-comment-websiteurl-box/
disable-hide-comment-url By Sachin Khosla
This is another WordPress plugin that does the job of removing url option from the comment form. It is not clear whether it works for Genesis or not.
But the plugin is updates 9 years ago and has around 2000+ installations. This works by disabling the WordPress’s in-built filter to disable the URL from the comment box.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-hide-comment-url/
Conclusion
When I applied the manually trick of pasting the PHP code in functions.php file of Genesis child theme of Authority Pro, it worked flawlessly.
But to do this, you need to login to your host and open your website folder.
Then navigate to the respective genesis folder and child theme to open functions.php file.
Then you have to add the code at the end. It takes little time and proper care to implement it.
If you are conversant with doing this, then you can do it. Otherwise, you can try any of the plugins mentioned above. The first plugin is relatively new and should do the job.
Finally, its your choice to do manual work or automation to remove website/url field from genesis themes.