Having too many social share buttons on your sites could be the very definition of too much of a good thing. That’s the conclusion of an interesting article on SearchEngineJournal.com titled, Too Many Social Media Sharing Buttons Make Your Site Less Social.
We encourage you to read the whole article, but here are some takeaways every SEO should consider when deciding how many social share buttons to use.
- Social share buttons hurt site speed. Every one of those buttons runs Javascript. The more Javascript you’re running, the slower your site loads.
- Too many options can actually turn customers away. There’s no need to overwhelm, just give visitors something they’ll use.
- Stories without a lot of shares look unappealing. Social share buttons with no shares are as bad as old content in the eyes of your visitors.
Deciding On Social Share Buttons
So which social share buttons should you be using? It really depends on your audience more than anything. This is one of those decisions that should be driven by metrics. Take a look and see which social networks bring you the most traffic and stick with those.
If you’re just getting started with social share buttons, start from the other direction. Find the social networks that are good demographic fits for your site. (For consumer oriented sites, Twitter and Facebook are a must.)
Social shares are the future of SEO, so getting the right social share button combo is a mission critical job.
What social share buttons work best for your site? Share your thought in the comments section below.