Display a Facebook Page count without relying on the old public endpoint

The old example fetched a Page name anonymously and read a likes property. Do not use that as a current integration contract—or assume that a Page's likes, followers and an individual post's reactions are the same metric.

Separate obtaining the data from displaying it

For an API-backed counter, first establish access to the specific Page through Meta's developer setup. Confirm the available field, supported API version, token type and permissions for your app and Page. Those choices cannot be replaced by a universal token-free PHP snippet.

Keep credentials on the server. Fetch on a schedule, validate the response, and save a small projection containing only the public count and when it was checked. The website can then render that cached value without making a visitor wait for Facebook.

<?php
function renderPageCount(?int $count, string $pageUrl): string
{
    // This URL is supplied by the site's configuration, not a visitor.
    $link = '<a href="' . htmlspecialchars(
        $pageUrl, ENT_QUOTES | ENT_SUBSTITUTE, 'UTF-8'
    ) . '">Visit our Facebook Page</a>';

    if ($count === null || $count < 0) {
        return $link;
    }

    return '<p>' . number_format($count)
        . ' Page likes · ' . $link . '</p>';
}

// null means no verified, sufficiently recent value is available.
echo renderPageCount(null, 'https://www.facebook.com/YOUR_PAGE');

Use a fixed HTTPS Page URL. Pass a count only after your data-fetching job has validated it and applied your chosen freshness limit. If the retrieved metric is followers, change the label to followers; do not relabel it as likes.

A missing count is not zero

Expired access, provider errors and a genuinely empty audience are different states. Hide a stale or unavailable counter and keep the Page link working. Never put an access token in browser JavaScript, a public feed or an error message. A simple Page link is often more useful than maintaining a fragile vanity counter.

Use Meta's Pages API setup and Page reference for the access contract. The rendering example uses PHP's HTML escaping; it makes no Facebook request.