The Like button is an easy way to show appreciation for a post.
Click the Like button on any post or page, and your Gravatar will appear next to it.
Click the Like button again to unlike. Every WordPress.com blog includes the Like system, although you can control whether Likes display on your site.
In this guide
Let’s say you’ve found a particularly awesome post on WordPress.com. You’d like to show your appreciation to the author and give them credit. At the bottom of the post, you see the Like button.
Click it, and the button changes to show that you’ve liked the post. Your Gravatar appears as a visual indicator of your appreciation.
Visitors must be logged into WordPress.com in order to use the Like button. An alternative for non-WordPress.com visitors is to use the Ratings system.
Your Gravatar is clickable and linked to your Gravatar Profile. If you haven’t configured or updated your Gravatar Profile, you can do that by visiting Me → My Profile in your WordPress.com account.
Over time, as the post grows in popularity, the number of Likes will increase. One row of Likes will be shown:
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:
If you need to remove the Like from a post (i.e. “unlike” the post), click the Like button again. Clicking the button will toggle the status of your Like to off.
To review all the WordPress.com posts you’ve liked, visit your Reader and then visit the My Likes section:
By default, all WordPress.com blogs display the Like button (and the gallery of Gravatars for bragging rights) under each post.
To turn Likes on or off:
- Go to My Site(s).
- Click on Tools → Marketing.
- Click on Sharing Buttons.
- Check the box next to Show like button.
- Click Save Changes.
When you make a change to whether Likes show or not, this applies to new posts only. In addition, the Like button will still appear in readers’ toolbars and in the WordPress.com reader. It will also show in notification emails (for sites without plugins only.)
You can also choose for Likes (and other sharing buttons) to display on your pages, your media files, and/or on the front page, archive pages, and search results of your site.
To configure where the Likes button shows:
- Go to My Site(s).
- Click on Tools → Marketing.
- Click on Sharing Buttons.
- Check the box next to the pages you want the Like button to appear on.
- Click Save Changes.
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.
Posts and page likes will default to the settings in Marketing → Sharing buttons, but you can turn on or off Likes for specific posts and pages through the page editor by following this guide.
