How to Edit the Footer in WordPress

Make your site look more pro

When youinstall WordPress, one of the most important, yet sometimes overlooked parts is the default branded footer copy at the bottom of your webpages.

The footer typically includes elements like links to legal disclaimers, copyright information and date,privacy policyand terms of service, contact details, and a sitemap.

The footer helps improve user experience, overall design quality, boost visitors’ perception of your brand, and maximize engagement. If you don’t edit the footer text to match your brand identity, it may seem out of place or unprofessional to anyone who visits your site.

This guide covers the main methods you can use to edit the footer in WordPress.

For most WordPress themes, it’s legal to edit the footer. However, if you have a third-party theme for your site, make sure you read the license agreements and documentation as some restrict removal of copyright notices.

Before you can start modifying the footer section of your site,backup your siteso that you can quickly restore it in case you make any errors.

You can edit the footer in WordPress using the following methods:

Theme Customizer is part of every WordPress site, and you can access it from the Appearance tab in the WordPress admin panel or dashboard. This WordPress feature allows you to make several changes to your site includingchanging fonts, colors, adding a logo, and even editing your header and footer sections.

If your WordPress theme has a widget area in the footer section, you can use the widget to add links, text, images, and legal disclaimers.

There are thousands ofWordPress plugins for your newly installed themethat you can use to extend the functionality of your site.

Among these plugins is a footer plugin that makes it easy to make minor or major changes to your WordPress site without anycoding or other technical experience.

If your WordPress theme has no built-in footer plugin, you can use a third-party WordPress footer plugin likeRemove Footer Credit.

The footer.php is a WordPress template file that displays the footer area for your theme. Editing the footer.php code allows you to replace the default WordPress theme footer text with your custom footer copy.

It’s not recommended to edit the footer.php code directly, especially if you’re not familiar with coding. Instead, you can use some best practices such as creating a child theme, creating a backup of your theme files, and commenting the code in the footer.php file.

Note: These instructions apply for the Twenty Seventeen WordPress theme.

get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ )

//get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ );echo “add text here”;?>

If you want toconnect your website with a third-party app, you can add code snippets to the WordPress footer.

For example, you can add social media buttons like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or YouTube to your site’s footer section. Just take the script of the social network you want to add, and then paste it into the footer section.

Alternatively, install and activate a plugin that allows you to add the script to the footer section. One of the plugins that helps with this is theInsert Headers and Footersplugin.

To do this, install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin. Copy and paste the footer code into the Scripts in Footer section.

Saveyour changes before moving on.

You can also add an image to the footer through the Customizer, or by dragging and dropping the image widget to the footer section.

Editing the footer section of your WordPress site is one of the various theme enhancements you can make. It can be a time-consuming job if you have many sites, but it makes all the difference in your site’s design, navigation, and the user experience for your visitors.

Were you able to edit the footer in WordPress on your site using any of these steps? Share with us in a comment.

Elsie is a technology writer and editor with a special focus on Windows, Android and iOS. She writes about software, electronics and other tech subjects, her ultimate goal being to help people out with useful solutions to their daily tech issues in a simple, straightforward and unbiased style. She has a BCom degree in Marketing and currently pursuing her Masters in Communications and New Media.Read Elsie’s Full Bio

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How to Edit the Footer in WordPress

How to Edit the Footer in WordPress