Implementing Facebook Like Button in WordPress Plugin
Posted on 16th June 2023
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, powering millions of websites. According to a recent survey, WordPress now powers 34% of the internet.
One of the reasons for WordPress’ success is its extensibility. WordPress plugins are pieces of software that can be added to a WordPress website to add new features or functionality.
There are plugins for just about everything, from contact form plugins to eCommerce plugins to plugins that add social media buttons to your website.
In this article, we’re going to show you how to add a Facebook Like button to your WordPress website using a plugin.
Why Add a Facebook Like Button to Your WordPress Site?
There are a few reasons you might want to add a Facebook Like button to your WordPress website.
First, it can help increase engagement on your website. If a visitor likes your content, they’re more likely to share it with their friends on Facebook, which can help bring more traffic to your site.
Second, a Facebook Like button can help you build up a following on Facebook. If you have a Facebook page for your business or website, adding a Like button to your website can help increase the number of likes on your page, which can help you reach more people.
Third, a Facebook Like button can help you collect data on your website’s visitors. Facebook has a huge amount of data on its users, and when someone clicks the Like button on your site, that data can be shared with you.
This data can be used to create targeted Facebook ads or to better understand your website’s audience.
How to Add a Facebook Like Button to WordPress
Adding a Facebook Like button to your WordPress website is easy, thanks to the wide range of plugins available.
We recommend using the Social Media Share Buttons & Icons plugin. It’s a free plugin that’s available from the WordPress plugin repository.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you’ll need to connect it to your Facebook account.
To do this, go to the Social Media Share Buttons & Icons settings page and click on the “Connect with Facebook” button.
You’ll be taken to Facebook, where you’ll need to grant the plugin permission to access your account.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken back to the WordPress plugin settings page, where you’ll see a list of options for configuring the Facebook Like button.
You can choose to show the button on your homepage, posts, pages, or other post types. You can also choose the position of the button, and whether to show the button before or after your content.
You can also choose to display the button as a button, icon, or both.
Once you’ve configured the plugin settings, click on the “Save Changes” button to save your changes.
That’s all there is to it! You’ve successfully added a Facebook Like button to your WordPress website.
Including the Facebook like button in your WordPress plugin is a great way to promote your plugin and get more traffic to your site.
There are two ways to add the Facebook like button to your plugin. The first way is to use the Facebook Like Button plugin. This plugin will add the Facebook like button to your plugin automatically.
The second way to add the Facebook like button to your plugin is to manually add the code to your plugin. To do this, you will need to edit your plugin code and add the following code:
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Replace YOUR_PLUGIN_URL with the URL of your plugin.
Save your plugin and upload it to your WordPress site.
The Facebook like button will now be added to your plugin.
The next step is to add the XFBML version of the like button to your WordPress plugin. This is the recommended way to add the like button to your plugin, as it allows for more customization and flexibility.
To add the XFBML version of the like button, you’ll need to add the following code to your plugin:
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
You’ll need to replace “http://example.com” with the URL of the page or post you want to like.
The data-layout attribute can be set to “standard”, “button_count”, or “box_count”. The “standard” layout displays the like button with the number of likes and shares, the “button_count” layout displays the like button with the number of likes, and the “box_count” layout displays the like button with the number of shares.
The data-action attribute can be set to “like” or “recommend”. The “like” action will display the word “Like” next to the like button, while the “recommend” action will display the word “Recommend” next to the like button.
The data-show-faces attribute can be set to “true” or “false”. If set to “true”, the like button will display the profile pictures of the user’s friends who have also liked the page or post.
The data-share attribute can be set to “true” or “false”. If set to “true”, the like button will include a share button.
The final step is to add the like button to your WordPress posts and pages. To do this, you’ll need to add the following code to the WordPress loop in your theme:
You can also add the like button to a specific post or page by adding the following code to the post or page:
[fb_like_button]
You can also add the like button to a sidebar widget by adding the following code to a text widget:
You can also add the like button to a template file by adding the following code to the template file:
That’s it! You’ve now successfully added the Facebook like button to your WordPress plugin.