The Like button is an easy way to show appreciation for a piece of content. This guide will explain how to like posts, view likes on a post, and turn the Like button on or off for your website. Here’s an example:
In this guide
Use the Like block to insert a Like button anywhere on your block theme site. Most commonly, it is used in the Single Posts template to include a Like button on all the site’s blog posts.
To add the Like block, click the + Block Inserter icon and search for “like”. Click to add the Like block to any template, post, or page.
For more information, visit our detailed instructions on adding blocks.
When you first add the block, it will show you example profiles for you to see how likes appear once your content receives some likes. These sample likes will not appear publicly on your site.
The Like block includes a setting to show the reblog button next to the Like button. Please note that reblogs are not supported on plugin-enabled sites. To provide similar functionality, you can use the AddToAny Share Buttons plugin to add a WordPress sharing button.
To enable or disable the legacy sharing feature (usually only enabled on a site with a classic theme), take the following steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Tools → Marketing (or Jetpack → Settings in WP-Admin).
- Click on the “Sharing Buttons” tab (or the “Sharing” tab in WP-Admin).
- Check or uncheck the option for the Like button.
When you change whether Likes show or not, this applies to new posts only. In addition, the Like button will still appear in readers’ toolbars and the WordPress.com reader. It will also show in notification emails (for sites without plugins only.)
Posts and page likes will default to the settings chosen in the previous section. However, you can turn Likes on or off for specific posts and pages on classic themes by following these steps:
- In your dashboard, navigate to Pages or Posts.
- Click on a page or post to open the editor.
- Click the Jetpack icon (that looks like a lightning bolt on a green circle) in the top right corner of the editor screen.
- Under the “Likes and Sharing” section, toggle on or off the option to show likes.
- Click “Save” or “Publish” to save your changes.
The Like button is most commonly displayed on posts, but you can display the Like button on pages, media files, the front page, archive pages, search results, and other areas of your site.
To adjust where the Like button shows on classic themes:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Tools → Marketing.
- Click on the “Sharing Buttons” tab.
- Tick the box next to the content you want the Like button to appear on.
- Click the “Save Changes” button.
Choosing “Front Page, Archive Pages, and Search Results” means that the Like button will show on your blog’s front page below each post rather than only if a reader clicks through to the individual post.
Plugins may add additional types of content to the list of areas the Like button can be shown.
The following sections describe how to use the Like button on any WordPress site that has it enabled.
If a post or page has likes available, the Like button will typically appear at the bottom of the post next to any sharing buttons. As long as the visitor is logged into a WordPress.com account, they can use the Like button.
Click the Like button to like the post:
After clicking the Like button, the text of the button will change to “Liked” and your profile picture will appear next to it:
Your profile picture will be a clickable link to your Gravatar profile.
If you need to remove the Like from a post (i.e. “unlike” the post), click the Like button again once.
Over time, as the post grows in popularity, the number of Likes will increase. Up to five avatar images for people who liked the post will be shown next to the Like button, along with a link showing the total count of Likes on the post:
To see the rest of the Likes, click on the total count, and the rest of the Likes will display in a scrollable pop-up:
To see a list of all the posts you’ve liked, follow these steps:
- Visit your WordPress.com dashboard.
- Click on the Reader at https://wordpress.com/read.
- On the left side, click “Likes“.
A list of all your liked posts will be displayed, with the most recently liked post first.
