But what is a "large number"? Not all FB users will click the like button on a website, or expect it to be there, because the website is not a Facebook page. The number of likes is not a traffic measurement, it doesn't represent the website popularity.
I completely understand the newsfeed point, which is why I have no argument against social sharing buttons on websites - the non-scripted kind that link to various services from Twitter to Reddit to FB. If the user wants to share the site, they will use this method, or they may copy the link, or have some other way to like the page such as a browser extension.
"Like us on Facebook" is what Likes are about. You go to Facebook, and you Like something - a post, page or item. It's a Facebook thing, not a "everything in the universe" thing.
That's a slight chicken/egg problem. Most websites don't have like buttons with counters, so most people probably aren't going to use it as a signal anyways. If you do have a high amount of likes there may be some benefit to using it, but how are you going about getting those likes without the button there in the first place?
Google have said Facebook likes aren't treated as a ranking signal but your page showing up on newsfeeds will bring in more likes and more backlinks.
> Makes zero difference to any visitor what that number is. It's not any measure of performance or anything.
You don't think a large number of likes makes a page look more newsworthy than a page with zero likes?