Better Click to Share: Power User Guide

This guide walks through the “power user” features of the Better Click to Share WordPress plugin. It’s written for the current WordPress editing experience, where Gutenberg and blocks are front and center. If you are comfortable working with blocks or shortcodes and want more control over how your Click to Share boxes behave, this is for you.

If you just want the quick how‑to for each feature, jump to the sections below.

How Better Click to Share fits into the block editor

Today, most people will add Better Click to Share boxes using the block editor:

• Use the dedicated Better Click to Share block (if you see it in the block inserter), or
• Use a Shortcode block and paste a [bctt] shortcode inside it.

The examples in this guide use the shortcode syntax because it works in any context: classic editor, Shortcode block, reusable blocks, and some page builders. In Gutenberg you will typically:

1. Add a new block.
2. Choose the Better Click to Share block or the Shortcode block.
3. Paste or edit the shortcode with the options you need.

The rest of this article focuses on those “hidden” shortcode options: things that are intentionally not exposed as a long list of checkboxes in the UI, but are available when you need them.

Why hide the power features?

WordPress became popular because it is fast to set up and friendly for non‑technical users. When I build plugins, I try to keep that same spirit: your least tech‑savvy user should still feel comfortable publishing.

The WordPress philosophy calls this “Decisions, not Options”:

As developers we sometimes feel that providing options for everything is a good thing, you can never have too many choices, right? Ultimately these choices end up being technical ones, choices that the average end user has no interest in. It’s our duty as developers to make smart design decisions and avoid putting the weight of technical choices on our end users.

For most people, Better Click to Share “just works” with almost no configuration. Historically, the only visible options were your X (Twitter) username and whether you wanted to use short URLs. But over time, people started asking for very specific behavior: custom URLs, nofollow, design overrides, and more.

This guide is for those power users. The goal is to make advanced users happy without turning the interface into a wall of settings.

Instead of adding buttons and dropdowns for everything, the features below are exposed as invisible options—extra shortcode attributes and a few developer hooks. You have to know they are there to use them.

Block editor users will note that many of these settings are indeed exposed within the editor, where it’s far more commonplace to give many options. We’ve tried to strike a balance between “old school” WordPress users (a group we proudly belong to) and new users who seem to prefer options over decisions.

1. Selectively removing (or customizing) the URL

By default, Better Click to Share includes a link back to the current post in every social post. That is what most people want: a quotable snippet that points back to your content.

Sometimes, though, you want a pure quote with no URL, or you want to send traffic somewhere else (a landing page, a product page, etc.). You can control that with the url parameter on the shortcode.

1.1 Remove the URL entirely

Example: a timeless quote that doesn’t need to link anywhere.

People should treat others how they wish they were treated. Share on X

To remove the automatic link back to your post, use url="no":

[[bctt tweet="This is such a life-changing quote it doesn't need a link." url="no"]]

If you also want to remove the “via @username” attribution, add via="no". When you do want attribution but from a different handle than your global setting, you can pass username="another_handle" on the shortcode and Better Click to Share will use that just for this box:

[[bctt tweet="This is such a life-changing quote it doesn't need a link." url="no" via="no"]]

1.2 Use a completely custom URL

You can also send clicks somewhere other than the current post. For example, a product page or a special campaign link.

This shortcode:

[[bctt tweet="This post will contain a totally custom URL" url="https://yourwebsite.com/you-can-even-use-long-urls-here"]]

…will create a box that, when clicked, shares your post text plus that exact URL, instead of the post’s URL.

This post will contain a totally custom URL Share on X

This is useful when you want to promote a product, a newsletter signup, or a special landing page from within a blog post while still using the same Better Click to Share box style.

NOTE: If you use the premium UTM Tags add-on, your global UTM settings will also be applied to that custom URL, and you can override them per box with attributes like utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign.

1.3 Known edge cases for custom URLs

• Non‑ASCII characters: URLs that contain characters like é, å, ø and other non‑ASCII symbols can be problematic when passed through PHP and the X sharing endpoint. To be safe, shorten these URLs with a service like Bitly or your own shortener before using them in url="".
• Include the protocol: Always start custom URLs with https:// (or http:// if necessary). If you omit the protocol, X may not recognize the string as a URL.
• URLs with ampersands (&): Query strings that contain & can confuse the sharing URL if they are not encoded correctly. When in doubt, shorten complex URLs with a shortener before dropping them into the shortcode.

2. Selectively making links “nofollow”

Sometimes you want the visible link in a Better Click to Share box to be marked as rel="nofollow" for SEO reasons. Whether or not that has a significant impact on your SEO is debatable, but some site owners care about it and asked for the option.

To add rel="nofollow" to the front‑facing link in a specific box, use the nofollow attribute:

[[bctt tweet="Dear search engines, please don't follow this link." nofollow="yes"]]

This leaves the behavior of the post itself unchanged, but the on‑page anchor that visitors click will include the rel="nofollow" attribute.

Dear search engines, please don't follow this link. Share on X

3. Designing custom templates without touching the plugin code

If you like the functionality of Better Click to Share but want more control over the appearance, there are a couple of options.

3.1 Use the Premium Styles add‑on

The simplest way to change the look of your boxes is to use the Better Click to Share Premium Styles add‑on, which gives you a set of pre‑built, responsive designs you can switch between in the Premium Styles tab of the settings. It works globally, so you don’t have to change any of your existing shortcodes or blocks.

3.2 Override the plugin’s CSS via uploads

If you are comfortable editing CSS, you can override the plugin’s default styles without modifying the plugin files themselves. This makes your changes update‑safe.

1. Connect to your site’s server via SFTP or your host’s file manager.
2. Locate the file:/wp-content/plugins/better-click-to-tweet/assets/css/bcttstyle.css
3. Copy that file to the root of your uploads directory:/wp-content/uploads/bcttstyle.css
4. Once the file exists in uploads, the plugin will load that version instead of the built‑in one.
5. Edit /wp-content/uploads/bcttstyle.css to change colors, borders, spacing, etc.

Because the override file lives in uploads, plugin updates will not overwrite your custom styles. If you want to go back to the default look, you can rename, move, or delete the file in uploads.

3.3 Completely dequeuing the plugin stylesheet (developer option)

For developers who want to own all styling in their theme or a custom plugin, Better Click to Share offers a way to completely disable its own stylesheet. That lets you copy any needed CSS into your theme and keep page output lean.

You can do this by adding a small snippet to a must‑use plugin or a custom functionality plugin. The idea is to set an option that tells Better Click to Share not to enqueue its CSS file.

<?php
/*
ALERT: THIS FUNCTION ONLY WORKS ON VERSION 5.0+ OF BETTER CLICK TO TWEET
*
This function sets an option in your WordPress options table, so adding this function
and refreshing the site even once will disable the Better Click To Tweet stylesheet
until the option is removed.
*
Note that uninstalling the core Better Click To Tweet plugin from the dashboard
will remove the option automatically.
*
To remove the option (and thus re-register and enqueue the default CSS) without
deleting the core plugin, you'll need to uncomment the remove function and refresh
once before deleting this snippet.
*/
function my_bctt_set_a_dequeue_option() {
  if ( ! function_exists( 'my_bctt_remove_css_option' ) ) {
    add_option( 'bctt_disable_css', 'yes' );
  } else {
    my_bctt_remove_css_option();
  }
}
add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'my_bctt_set_a_dequeue_option' );
// To re-enable the CSS, you could define:
// function my_bctt_remove_css_option() {
//   return delete_option( 'bctt_disable_css' );
// }
?>

I recommend putting this in a must‑use plugin so it loads early and is not affected by theme changes.

4. Changing the call‑to‑action text (“Share On X”)

By default, boxes use a standard call‑to‑action like “Share on X” that works well for most sites. Sometimes you want something that better matches the context of the content or your brand voice.

As of version 4.10, you can change that anchor text with the prompt parameter.

Example:

[[bctt tweet="This Click To Share plugin has features that many paid plugins don't!" prompt="tell a friend"]]

That shortcode creates a box where the visible call to action uses “tell a friend” instead of the default phrase. This is an easy way to A/B style your calls to action and see what resonates with your audience.

This Click To Share plugin has features that many paid plugins don't! Share on X

5. Keeping things simple for most users, powerful for you

Most people will never need to think about URL modes, nofollow, or custom CSS. They will just add a Better Click to Share block, type a quote, and publish. That is by design.

But when you do need more control—especially in a modern Gutenberg workflow where blocks and reusable patterns are central—these hidden options give you room to grow without overwhelming the interface for everyone else.

As new advanced features land in Better Click to Share, I will continue to update this guide so you have a single place to see what is possible.

Here’s to keeping the web simple for your most non‑technical users, and powerful for you.