[Sharing -> Share Counter Setup] How to work with the Share Counter settings?

Introduction

The share counter setup screen holds all options related work of share counters on your site. In the settings screen, you will be able to configure the share counter update period, avoid negative social display, additional counter update options, counter recovery, fake counters, etc. But all those options will work only when you configure a design that uses social share counters. If you do not plan to use the share counters on your site the options below are not for you.

Basic Counter Settings

Counter Update

• Share counts refresh – adjust the period between share counters update on your website. The option will work only if you have share counters enabled to display on at least one position of the share buttons. The recommended default value is 6 hours.
• Increase update period for older posts – automatically increase the period of older posts. If your default update period is 6 hours and posts are published 7 days before the interval will become 12 hours. And it will double after 7 more days. We recommend using this option because usually, the older posts do not require a dynamic share counter update. But it is OK to keep it deactivated – all posts will have the same refresh rate.

Share Counter Update Setup

Those are essential options to get a proper counter update. Highly recommended to review and complete all those marked as required in the list below.

• Don’t use query string in URLs when updating share counters – if you are using query options in share URL or post URL option will trim to the base address. For example: if you have https://domain.com/post/?query=option will become https://domain.com/post/
• Required Facebook counter update API – select the counter update source. No matter which you choose (Facebook API or ShareCount API) you need to complete the steps and create an access token key. Without an access token key (no matter of the service) counter for Facebook won’t update.
  ℹ️ Follow this link for steps on the generation of Facebook Token 👉

• Enable display of counter on the static Facebook Like button – show the same counter as you have for Facebook in the static like button. The static like button is separate in the list of networks and you can activate it in combination with the Facebook share button or even as a standalone.
• Twitter share counter – select the Twitter counter source. If you choose an external service don’t forget to check their website for additional instructions on the activation. If you select the self-hosted option the value will increase with a click over the share buttons and be stored inside the post meta table.
• LinkedIn share counter – LinkedIn does not have a counter API. You can choose between a self-hosted counter (with a click on the button) or no share counter.
• AddThis internal counter support – if you have used in the past AddThis you can enable the option. The internal counters stored by AddThis will be added to the total value of shares (internal value does not have a network split).

Internal Share Counter

Not all social networks support official counter API. Using the internal counter options you can show values for all buttons.

• Display share counters for social networks without API based on button clicks – create an internal counter that operates with click-on share buttons. This value will show on the individual button and will take part in the total share value.
• Overwrite the official counters with internal – change the official API counter to internal. Enable the option and choose below those networks you will modify to show internal value. The option is added for backup in case a network changes its access and removes the values. But you can also use it to fake the official share counter by making it internal and setting your value.
• Don’t show share counter for Mail and Print buttons – those buttons have by default internal counter is active. With this option, you can disable this (the counter for Mail and Print operates even when the first option is disabled).
• Fully deactivate internal share counter tracking – the internal click tracking on each share button runs automatically in the background even when you don’t show share counters. This ensures that the values will be ready as soon as you tick to show the share counters. Enable the option if you wish to completely disable the internal share counter (and not internal counter values will be generated).

When you enable the internal share counter option on each post there will be fields to set the value manually (or modify the existing). The default state will show only networks with internal counters. If you activate the replacement of the official share value the network will also appear in the list.

Additional Counter Style & Settings

Using those options you can change additional visual options for your individual or total share counter.

Individual Network Share Counter

• Share counter format – Choose how you wish to present your share counter value – short number of full number. Various full value formats are present.
• Animate numbers – will add a nice count down animation to show the exact share value. The option uses a javascript animation and it will start immediately after the page is fully loaded.

Total Share Counter

• Change text “Total” used on Left/Right position – Provide a custom text or text in your language for the word “Total” when Left/Right counter display is used.
• Change “Shares” text (plural) or Change “Share” text (singular) – Provide a custom text or text in your language for the Share/Shares word in the big number share counter styles.
• Total counter icon – personalize the icon when total counter uses display with icon (used on entire site when such display of total counter is enabled).
• Always generate total counter based on all social networks – enable this option if you wish to see total counter generated based on all installed in plugin social networks no matter of ones you have active. Default plugin setup is made to show total counter based on active for display social networks only and using different social networks on different locations may cause to have difference in total counter. Use this option with caution and always before manage the installed and active networks to avoid a potential server overload.
• Share counter format – Choose how you wish to present your share counter value – short number of full number. Various full value formats are present.
• Animate numbers – will add a nice count down animation to show the exact share value. The option uses a javascript animation and it will start immediately after the page is fully loaded.

Additional Share Counter Options & Features

Avoid Social Negative Proof

Avoid social negative proof allows you to hide button counters or total counter until a defined value of shares is reached. The feature is recommended for sites to eliminate the negative social proof effect when you show zero shares. To do this you can activate the avoid negative proof and fill for individual and total counter initial value of 1 share. This will ensure that the button will show the share counter only when at least 1 share is made.

• Enable avoid negative social proof – the option control work of the function.
• Minimal share value to display single button counter – This is the minimum share value individual network should have before the share counter become visible on site. If you set for example 10 in the field and you have 6 Facebook shares, the Facebook button will not show the counter. The counter will be visible when your Facebook shares become 10 or more.
• Minimal share value to display total counter – it’s the same as the individual share counter but applies for the total shares.

Recover My Shares

Share counter recovery allows you restore back shares once you make a permalink change (including installing a SSL certificate). Share recovery will show back shares only if they are present for both versions of URL (before and after change).

• Previous URL format – make a selection only if the previous URL format you were using before the change is different. In this case, you can select from the list or fill a custom format (with the selection of Custom from the list). The format definition follows the exact WordPress permalink structure from the settings menu. If you do a change for the protocol or domain only then this field should remain as Unchanged.
• Change of connection protocol – use this field only if you make a change of the connection protocol of your site. For example, you migrate from http (non-secure version) to https (a secure version of your site).
• Previous Domain Prefix – use this field only if you move from www to non-www version of the site (or the opposite).
• Domain change – in case of the domain name change, you need to use the Previous and Current domain fields. In the previous domain field, you need to set the exact used previous domain link – example: http://olddomain.com. In the current domain field, you need to set the exact current domain – for example, http://domain.com. When you do a domain name change we recommend to avoid usage of protocol and version fields. Instead of this defines the old domain with the version of the protocol.
• Date of change – very rear used. The field can define the exact date when you do the change. The idea is to prevent do a call for recovery for all posts published after this date. But this option may also produce an issue with missing counters due to the difference in time formatting in WordPress themes. It may also cause a problem in share counters with old but update posts (the recovery will not work). Do not use it unless it is needed.

Fake Share Counters

Increase the number of shares with a multiplier (fake values). As an addition, you can also change the values to internal counters for all networks.

• Activate fake share counters – enable the option if you wish to use the multiplier of the original counter
• Counter increase value – set a numeric value that will be used to increase the number of existing shares. Example if you set 5 the existing shares will be multiplied with 5: if you have 100 real shares, the plugin will show 500.
• Integrate official API share counters with internal counters – the integration will compare both – official and internal value of shares. And it will show always the greater of them to the front-end.

Expert Share Counter Options

All options below are suitable for advanced users. If you are not sure of their purpose contact our support team.

Log Counter Updates

Logging of counter update requests is a new option introduced in version 8.2. The option is added to allow easy tracking of the ongoing requests to the share counter APIs. This helps identify problems and see the raw results. The option can be activated from the Advanced Counter Update Options. When enabled you will see a new panel where the last 99 requests are stored and can be explored.

Advanced Counter Update Options

• Force counter update on the background when a cache plugin/server is used – Include additional on load check for share counter update with ajax call. The option will update counters on back, but you will not see them till the cache expires and updates. If your cache expiration period is greater than 1 hour there is no need to use this option. Warning! If not properly used the option may produce a high load over the server or slow down the page load.
• Speed up process of counters update – The speed-up counters update process uses a version of the cURL library for calling multiple simulated connections at the same time. To update the share counter for a network, the plugin does a call to the API for getting the share values. The regular work is processing all the calls 1 by 1. With this option set to Yes, you will change the execution to all at the same time. Use this option with caution as not all servers support its usage. The option is not recommended to be used in combination with share recovery or when you have a short update period.
• Always save the share counter value without using the internal cache – The option will eliminate the internal cache and save the value from the social network even it is smaller from the past successful update. Warning! Use with caution – without the cache of counters, your site may show zero shares when there are such.
• Narrow down the number of share counter updates for a post/page – This option will add an additional check to updated posts to ensure that popular posts will not update so frequently. This will allow to update less popular posts by reserving additional ticks for them.

Additional Counter Display Rules

• Share counter on the homepage is from the shares of all posts and pages – enable this option to make your homepage show share counters based on the values plugin stores for each of the posts on site.
• Cache for the total counter on the homepage – modify the default caching value of 30 minutes. Fill in just a numeric value representing minutes – example: 60. Avoid using too small values because you can overload the database server.
• Do not show share counters on the homepage – hide the share counters on the homepage of your site, no matter of the styles that you select.
• Do not show share counters on archive pages (category, tags, authors, etc.) – hide the share counters on any of the archive pages on site.