there's not much you can do about most of those issues as long as they are hosted elsewhere.
if they are static resources you might consider hosting them on your server so that you can serve them properly.
then of course it's your responsibility to keep the resources up to date.

there will always be additional tradeoffs when you serve resources to your page from a server you don't control.

Thank you phranque

But would I lose more than I gain if I just got rid of the buttons altogether?

do users use the buttons? if so keep them, if not then take them away.

i wouldn't worry about the so called 'errors'

According to many SEO analysis to have them in the site better your ranking chances...

Use share42, the code is local and lightweight, a good alternative. Only downside is there are no stats.

Hi Swanny007

Many thanks. I tried to make it work in one of my pages but it does not work! But, the main point now is: is it safe? There is little about it on the Net.

I don't see why not, I looked at the code myself before implementing it. It's basically an image sprite stored on your server, and the JS file, also stored on your server. Safer than the "big guys" sharing scripts in my opinion.

Hi Swanny007

Good point!

Looks like I did something wrong. I unzipped the file and tried, BOTH, uploading to the root directory of my serverm the unzipped folder, and then the two files inside the folder, rather than the folder itself. Nothing happened, after inserting the code in the HTML

@qimqim

If you are using CMS like wordpress for your site than i recommend you to use Yoast Plugin and if you are using static or dynamic with php or .net then you should try addthis and share-this for your site. So you did not find any issues.

...then you should try addthis and share-this for your site...

That is bad advice for the OP who is looking for lightweight simple code. Both of those "free" services generate a lot of HTTP requests to various services and scripts, they are total unnecessary bloat in my opinion. Keep in mind they sell your visitor's data, so they're making money off of you and your site. The only one good thing they have is analytics. I chose to give that up to get a fast loading site.

Thank you Swanny007

So, you still think that share42 is the best option, right? Don't they do the same using your site to farm information?

In my opinion, yes. I don't think you get it, share42 is just a simple way to generate sharing buttons for your site. The code is all on your site, there are no external hits to anything, share42 does not profit from you or farm data from your visitors like sharethis and addthis. share42 just generates a script that resides on your own server, if you don't want to use them you can just write your own code to do the same thing but it's more work.

Hi

Sorry, to go on, and on...

I've had a look at the js script as I can't understand how the buttons connect to the social media pages.

In the normal buttons from say, faceBook, they link to the FaceBook page.

Am I missing something simple?

Thanks

@Swanny007

How simple is Share42 lol its also using javascript have a look at the code lol share42 also getting your site's and sharing info .. any excuses

below is the code/ its using javascript as well..

<div class="share42init"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://domain.com/share42.js"></script>

[edited by: Rumbas at 10:57 am (utc) on May 13, 2014]
[edit reason] URL removed as per TOS [/edit]

I'm not totally clear on what you're trying to ask or say. If the share42.js file is stored on your server, you're not sending them any data.

EDIT: I just noticed on the FAQ page: "Without requests to third-party sites (exception - if the "Show share counters" option is active, script sends requests to the sharing services)."

I do not have counters turned on, make sure you have that disabled.

Hi swanny007

I'm not sure if your post was meant as an answer to mine or to farhanawan

What I queried was whether the Share42 connects with the various Social media sites. For instance, at the moment in my site pintotours (dot) net if you press one of the buttons, you are asked to login and enter automatically the site. I understood that having the buttons in the page helped with SEO... and that for that they must connect. Perhaps I'm totally wrong, as usual!

@swan You are right on your side, correct if i am wrong.

The scenario is social share buttons and like buttons.
I recommend places for your ease qimqim

(for me the best is sharethis because it does not run any hidden scripts as addthis does)

I visit your site at the bottom of left of your site you use like and share buttons this is not the good approach try to use Follow/like icon on Left and Sharing buttons on the top of the page in front or under of your post title

like this site >>> check this site

wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-wordpress-seo-plugin-by-yoast/

i was reading this :)

There is no option to attached image so i cant attach image for your ease

Looking forward for more queries ...

Hi and thanks

Even more confused! So, you are saying that Share42 is not good? But my question was does it connect to the social media sites like the buttons I have on my site?

As for

I visit your site at the bottom of left of your site you use like and share buttons this is not the good approach try to use Follow/like icon on Left and Sharing buttons on the top of the page in front or under of your post title

Where do I get the Follow/like icon from? The position is irrelevant as I do not want to change it for aesthetic reasons.

@qimqim - there is no need to import any button images from any external site. The links generated allow visitors to interact with the social sites and that is where the SEO is, there is no SEO magic from importing buttons or images from either social or plugin sites.

Share42 uses images on your own site which would speed up loading usually and keep your stats info private unless you share it. Other scripts and plugins import the same images and generate stats from your hits and sell the data.

You can always go to each social site and get their code and add all those codes to your site. This does not improve your SEO at all and can more likely take even longer to load the images (never a good SEO idea). Your visits data will be shared and sold.

there is no need to import any button images from any external site. The links generated allow visitors to interact with the social sites and that is where the SEO is, there is no SEO magic from importing buttons or images from either social or plugin sites.

I'm sorry if I seem dumb (probably because I am...)You say there is no need to import buttons, but that is what i do with Share42, no?
But my question, which I don't seem to grasp after all these posts, is how are links generated if the code of Share42 does not include links to my social media sites?

Thanks

Re links: Share42 is about sharing, not following.

If the purpose is enabling users to -share- your content on their own social pages, that doesn't require the presence of a link to your social pages.

If you want them to -follow- you on this or that social media, that's when links to your social media page(s) would be needed. Be very selective about which of your pages you link to. Link only to the top few where you are significantly active, not just any place where you have an account.

Including social media buttons, either kind, will only help your SEO if users actually use them, so be sure they're visible enough for that.

If the purpose is enabling users to -share- your content on their own social pages, that doesn't require the presence of a link to your social pages.

Sorry, I'm very new to this.

How can they share my content if there is no link? You mean the idea is to link from the social page to the website, rather than the other way round?

If the user wants to share your content, they need to connect with THEIR social page(s), not yours.

There's more than one way to make that happen, but a good social sharing service can make life a lot easier than trying to assemble your own collection of sharing buttons. You don't have to worry about links because the sharing service looks after that for you.

My preferred sharing service provides a javascript snippet which I paste into my templates. It's about 15 lines of code, and it creates a cheerful little panel of social icons that makes it easy for users to share my content on dozens of social sites.

That's far more than I could accommodate if I were just using buttons provided by the sites individually.

Again, be sure you're clear on the difference between a social button for sharing content and a social button for collecting followers. They're different animals! :)

It seems part of the misunderstanding is

the advice of SEO sites that "promised" immediate success...

If you build your site to serve your visitors and forget about the shortcuts to the top you will do better in the long term. Buttons to encourage sharing are not a magical secret.

As buckworks said, Social Media Buttons are not supposed to be links to your social media sites, it is supposed to be used to help your visitors share your content with their friends on social media sites hopefully to get traffic to your site, not your social media site. Visitors can share your URL and content on social media sites without any link at all that you add to your site.

IF you decide you really want to have the Buttons, the Sharethis and Addthis scripts both are poor choices for the reasons mentioned above: loading images from other domains and sharing your visitor statistics with sites that sell the data. Share42 tells you how and where to install the folder contents, but from your question, it sounds like you might have missed that information. The images are on your own domain - not imported, the javascript does not share any statistical data unless it is set to do so by you.

buckworks said, Social Media Buttons are not supposed to be links to your social media sites

I didn't intend to say "not supposed to" about any of this, so I apologize if something came across that way.

The point I'm trying to make is that there's more than one kind of social media button (widgets, too), and they achieve different things, so a webmaster or web strategist needs to understand the differences.

Inviting users to share your content is different from inviting them to follow your social page(s). The buttons might look the same, but what they do is different. A website could use one or the other or both, but one needs to understand how each choice would fit the overall promotional strategy.

Example from my own experience: there's not much point trying to collect followers for a social media page that I don't have time to look after.