Wordpress SEO Expert

Improve your Google ranking with Peter Mahoney, 20+ years SEO & Wordpress experience

  • SEO Overhaul
  • SEO Campaign
  • WP Support
  • Blog
    • SEO Emails
  • Praise

Fill in your social media profiles

July 12, 2019 by Peter Wordpress SEO Expert

Fill in your social media profiles Wordpress SEO Expert

Far too many WordPress sites end up with empty social links

I see this all the time; in the header or footer of WordPress sites, a series of little social media icons that links to – nothing.

A lot of WordPress themes have sections for you to fill out your social profiles, so those little buttons can link to them correctly. But a lot of those themes will show them regardless of whether or not you’ve entered proper URLs. Some go a step further, and by default will have a link entered as #. That just means it links back to the page you’re on, but it’s enough to get the buttons showing and essentially linking to nothing.

It’s an easy enough oversight to make. But it means you have dead links which isn’t great for your SEO, and if visitors notice then it just seems wildly unprofessional.

If you have social buttons, they really need to link to social sites. It’s not hard to do – these sorts of WordPress themes are intended to make everything as simple as possible – but at the very least have a quick check of your own site and make sure your social button links, well, link.

In all honesty I see this in perhaps a third of WordPress sites overall, so there’s a good chance it affects your’s.

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social networking, Wordpress

About Peter Wordpress SEO Expert

SEO expert, web developer & designer, all-round nice guy, and ravenous information devourer.

Get FREE Wordpress SEO tips!

I send regular newsletters with WordPress SEO expert-level tips. Sign up to get them, along with my FREE e-book “Ongoing SEO Success”.

Did I mention they’re free!

Subscribe for free

Praise

I have over 2,500 5-star feedback reviews (and I’ve never received less than the full five.)

Here’s just one example, from Mike who runs Costello Entertainments:

Migration, Hosting, SEO and Speed Work on our new website all completed quickly and efficiently and Peter was most helpful in fixing an issue with a Popover on the site as well. If you’re thinking about asking Peter to do a job for you or hesitating, JUST DO IT! – He knows programming and the internet inside out, he’ll get the job done for you professionally, with a smile. I wish I could call a plumber or a tradesman to do the jobs I can’t do myself with the same level of confidence.
Read a lot more.

Recent Blogs

  • Outreach for backlinks – how to get quality links that Google will love
    I’m thinking of redirecting my Virtual Assistant work to other tasks as the generic LinkedIn work I ...
  • (Small) Pricing changes for 2025
    When COVID first hit, like a lot of people around the world I wanted to help my clients as much as possible ...
  • My site has errors – timeouts – and my host isn’t helping me
    Hi Peter, My site has been reporting errors (timeouts) which have become more regular the past week or so. I ...
  • How do we fix 404 errors after a site move or migration?
    Hi Peter, We migrated from Visualsoft to Woocommerce approx. 10 days ago and are experiencing 404 errors. ...

Legal

  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Disclaimer

Prices are quoted exclusive of VAT unless expressly stated.

Also read

  • Payment information

RSS

Peter Mahoney, WordPress SEO expert blog

Recent Posts

  • Outreach for backlinks – how to get quality links that Google will love
  • (Small) Pricing changes for 2025
  • My site has errors – timeouts – and my host isn’t helping me
  • How do we fix 404 errors after a site move or migration?
  • Why does SEMRush show my ranking change so much?

© Copyright 2025 Wordpress SEO Expert · All Rights Reserved · Site by Peter Mahoney