Has Comments is a yes/no signal that reports whether RankGear finds either a Disqus-domain reference or one of several common comment call-to-action phrases in a page’s rendered body. It returns 1 when such a marker is present and 0 when it is not — and because it matches on wording, a page can score 1 even when no comments have ever been published.
| Factor ID | RG-TEC-003 |
|---|---|
| Family | Tech & platform |
| Measurement | Boolean presence (0 / 1) |
| Measured zone | Rendered, script-free page body |
What it measures
Has Comments indicates whether RankGear finds either a Disqus-domain reference or one of several common comment call-to-action phrases on the page. It is a detection of a signal that a page invites or hosts discussion — not a count of comments and not a verification that a working comment form exists.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear searches the rendered, script-free body case-insensitively for disqus.com or phrases such as “leave a comment,” “post comment,” “comment here,” and “leave a reply,” allowing flexible whitespace between words. A match returns 1 and no match returns 0. The check does not count comments and does not verify that an interactive form is present or functional.
What RankGear looks for
<!-- any one of these markers in the body returns 1 -->
<a href="...disqus.com...">...</a>
<a href="#comments">Leave a comment</a>
<button>Post comment</button>
<h3>Leave a reply</h3>
// case-insensitive match, flexible whitespace:
// disqus.com | leave a comment | post comment
// comment here | leave a reply| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | A disqus.com reference or a recognized comment call-to-action phrase was found in the rendered, script-free body. |
| 0 | No such reference or phrase was found (the page uses a different comment system, or none at all). |
How to optimize it
Treat this as an observation about the page, not a target to chase. Offer comments only when discussion genuinely benefits the content and the organization can moderate it. Where comments make sense, encourage substantive contributions, control spam, and keep user-generated material accessible and safe. Adding a stock “leave a comment” phrase to score 1 achieves nothing on its own.
Important considerations
- A call-to-action phrase can score 1 even when the page has no published comments.
- Pages that use other comment systems — anything that is not Disqus and does not use the recognized phrases — may score 0 despite hosting real discussion.
- Comments are not required for ranking; many high-performing pages have none.
- Quality and moderation of discussion matter far more than the mere presence of a comment marker.
- This is a correlation-level signal within a measured result set, never a guarantee of ranking or a cause of it.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.