We know very well that if we wish to run a great WordPress site, then the less number of plugins we use, the better. Plugins are useful but they can be a mess if you have too many of them and they not only keep conflicting with each other, but also cause unnecessary downtime for your website.
So the trick of the trade here is that you have to avoid using plugins as much as possible in a WordPress environment.
In June 2015, Facebook depreciated the Like button and introduced Graph API v2.3. This means that inserting your Facebook like button into your WordPress site is not going to be easy. Unlike before, where you were only required to pull out a piece of code and embed it into your WordPress widget, now you need to do some additional hacking with WordPress code. It could be a bit of pain if you are a non-coder (and do not wish to install a plugin inside your precious WordPress space for such a simple function).
Here, I am providing you a simple way of ensuring that your Facebook like button continues to show up on your WordPress site without the need for using a plugin.
Step 1:
Head straight to Like Button – Social Plugins page of Facebook and scroll down to ‘Like Button Configuration.’
Step 2:
Type in the URL to Like and configure its settings like the width and layout of the Like button. Remember that your website is a real estate space so the smaller size of your like button, the better.
Step 3:
Once done, hit ‘Get Code’ and the following popup appears. Make sure that you have selected the right App ID which should be publicly available.
Step 4:
Copy the first set of code and paste it in the header.php of your WordPress site, preferably in your child theme.
Step 5.
Copy the second piece of the code and paste it exactly where you want to see the Like button appear. For example, you may want to have the Like button on a sidebar. So simply paste the code in the sidebar and that’s it. The Like button will start to appear!
