In 2010 I recommended AddThis as a quick way to add social sharing buttons to a website. You chose the networks and design, pasted a snippet of code into the site and could track shares. For a small blog or organization, that was a simple approach at the time.
Oracle ended AddThis in 2023. An old AddThis widget is therefore no longer a working implementation. The question behind the article remains useful: how can you make a page easy to share without making the website busier or slower than necessary?
Start with the simplest action
A clear URL that visitors can copy works across platforms. You can also offer a small number of sharing options for channels your readers actually use. More icons are not automatically better. A row of buttons for services nobody uses takes up space and distracts from the content.
Check what happens when somebody shares. Does the right title, description and image appear? Can the visitor edit the accompanying text? Does the link work on mobile and without a logged-in account? A button should help rather than unexpectedly open an app or collect information that sharing does not require.
Measure the result
Do not count button clicks alone. See whether shared links bring visitors and whether those visitors read on or make contact. A simple copy-link option may serve your readers better than a large widget. If you add outside code, review its performance and privacy effects before loading it on every page.
On a professional site, sharing controls can fit the site's own design. On a small blog, simplicity may matter more than custom work. The lasting lesson from my AddThis tip is to make sharing easy while adding only technology that actually helps readers.