Leverage AddThis to Improve Your Web Site Traffic

At least once a week, we are asked by our clients, “How can I get more traffic to my web site without using Pay Per Click marketing? One of the easiest and most cost effective ways to do that is have your web site visitors share your web site content on their social networks. This article describes how to use the AddThis service to assist you in getting the most out of your social media marketing campaign.

What is the AddThis Service?

The AddThis service, available at http://www.addthis.com, makes it amazingly easy for web site visitors to share your web site content on their Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and many, many more social networks. Best of all, it is really easy to add to your web site or blog, and it offers weekly analytics on pages or posts shared, how many clicks and viral lift.

How do I add an AddThis Bar to my web site?

1. Create an account at https://www.addthis.com/register (if necessary)
2. Click the Get Add This button from the main navigation bar
3. Select Website as the platform
4. Select a Style (social network buttons to include), then click the Grab It button. This copies the AddThis code to your clipboard
5. Paste the code where you would like to display it.

How do I add an AddThis Bar to my WordPress blog?

1. Log-in to your WordPress Admin Console (generally located at http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin)
2. Click the Add New link (located under Plugins). The Install Plugins screen will open.
3. Enter AddThis in the Search field, then click the Search Plugins button
4. Click the Install Now link for AddThis featuring Sharing Buttons / Facebook Like / Tweet Button, then activate the plugin
5. Go to Settings > AddThis
6. Complete the information on the Basic (and Advanced tabs if desired), then click the Save Changes button

How do I customize the URL, Title and Description for a particular AddThis link on my web site?

By default, AddThis uses the URL (web address) and Title displayed in the browser’s title bar for the page the web visitor is on, and does not include a description about the page or content to be shared. This, once again, is easy to customize. You will need to create custom buttons, but don’t worry, AddThis has made this easy to do. Go to https://www.addthis.com/help/url-and-title for more information.

With just a little bit of effort, and no up-front cost, you can make it easy for your web site visitors to share your web site’s and blog’s content on their social networks. AddThis makes sharing your content very easy to accomplish, adds new features and social networks all of the time, and is a terrific way to drive new customers to your web site. As a result, this is a feature that we strongly endorse and integrate into every new web site that we develop.