Nobody clicks your share buttons
13 hours ago
- #web-design
- #social-sharing
- #wordpress
- The author never uses share buttons and believes most people share content by copying and pasting URLs instead.
- Research data shows extremely low usage rates for social share buttons, around 0.1% to 0.25%, across multiple studies.
- Most sharing occurs via 'dark social' methods, such as pasting links in private messages, emails, or apps, not through public share buttons.
- Social share buttons impose costs like loading third-party scripts, tracking, and legal liabilities without providing value.
- Major companies like Meta are discontinuing external share plugins, indicating a decline in their relevance.
- Alternatives include relying on built-in browser share features, adding a simple 'copy link' button, or removing share icons entirely.
- In WordPress theme design, social share icons are often unnecessary visual noise that don't serve readers or earn their place.