Fix Missing Share Buttons on Your Blogspot Blog with a Simple CSS Tweak

What is Blogger and Why Does It Matter?

Blogger, commonly known as Blogspot, is one of the oldest and most widely used free blogging platforms in the world. Launched in 1999 by Pyra Labs and later acquired by Google in 2003, it quickly became the go-to choice for millions of writers, hobbyists, journalists, and small publishers who wanted a simple, cost-free way to share their thoughts online. Unlike self-hosted platforms that require technical setup and server management, Blogger offers a ready-made environment where anyone can start publishing within minutes - no coding knowledge required.

Key Features That Made Blogger Popular

By 2011, Blogger had grown into a mature and feature-rich platform. It offered free hosting under the blogspot.com domain, the ability to map a custom domain, a built-in template designer, and Google account integration. Bloggers could manage their layouts through a drag-and-drop gadget system, and those with some HTML knowledge could go deeper by editing the template code directly through the Design > Edit HTML panel. Google also integrated Blogger with its other services - Google Analytics for traffic tracking, Google AdSense for monetization, and Google Buzz (Google's early social sharing network, active at the time) for content distribution.

The Importance of Social Sharing in the Blogging Era

In the early 2010s, social sharing was quickly becoming one of the most important factors in a blog's growth. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter were expanding rapidly, and bloggers depended on share buttons at the bottom of their posts to help readers spread content across social networks. Google recognized this and in June 2010, Blogger rolled out built-in share buttons for all Blogspot blogs - covering Email, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz. For bloggers who had been adding third-party sharing widgets manually, this was a welcome and long-awaited native feature.

The Problem - Share Buttons Suddenly Disappeared

After working reliably for several months, these share buttons quietly stopped appearing on many Blogspot blogs. No official announcement was made, which left bloggers puzzled. After digging into the template HTML, the cause became clear: Google had updated the CSS class name assigned to the share button links. The old class was no longer being recognized by the stylesheet, which meant the buttons were technically still in the template - they just weren't rendering visibly on the page.

The Fix - Update the CSS Class in Your Template

The solution is straightforward. The original CSS class for the share buttons was written as:

a class='share-button sb-email'
a class='share-button sb-blog'
a class='share-button sb-twitter'
a class='share-button sb-facebook'
a class='share-button sb-buzz'

Google updated this class by adding goog-inline-block as a prefix. The new correct class names are:

a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email'
a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog'
a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter'
a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook'
a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-buzz'

Step-by-Step Instructions

Follow these steps to apply the fix on your Blogspot blog:

1. Log in to your Blogger dashboard.
2. Go to Design > Edit HTML.
3. Check the box that says Expand Widget Templates.
4. Use your browser's Find function (Ctrl+F) to search for share-button sb-email.
5. Replace all five old class references with the new ones listed above.
6. Save your template and reload your blog.

Your share buttons should now reappear at the bottom of each post exactly as they did before. This is a one-time fix and requires no additional plugins or third-party tools - just a small edit inside your existing template file.

Reference: Google officially announced the original share buttons feature in June 2010. You can read the original announcement here: New Share Buttons on Blogger Buzz.