The footer of your WordPress site appears at the bottom of each post. If you need to make changes to the WordPress website’s footer, there are many ways website owners can make this field more engaging for their users by using it in various ways.
The ‘footer’ is the section of the website that comes after the content area. It usually shows on almost all of the websites. This section of the website is way down below and most beginners overlook it. There are, however, a number of ways you can make this area more useful for your customers, SEO, and the growth of your company. Many of the best WordPress themes have a widget area in the footer that is simple to customize. You can also delete unintended elements from this field by carefully editing the footer.php file in your theme.
Footers are mostly underappreciated. The use of website footers has two major benefits: assisting with navigating on the webpage and strengthening internal linkages to help with SEO.
And if you believe people don’t scroll all the way down and footers aren’t visible, think again.
So, how do you edit footer in wordpress?
Let’s have a look at what we’ll be discussing in this article:
- What can you put in the footer of your WordPress site?
- Different ways to edit Footer in WordPress.
- Change footer content in the theme Customizer
- Style your WordPress footer using CSS
- Editing the Footer Text Manually
- Making changes to the footer in WordPress by using widgets.
- Removing the ‘Powered by WordPress’ Text from Your Footer
What can you put in the footer of your WordPress site?
Here’s a rundown of what you can include in your website’s footer:
- Pages that don’t fit in your main menu but you’d like to make more discoverable.
- Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
- Copyright claims and sitemap.
- Links to affiliate and loyalty programs.
- Icons of social media.
- Recent blog posts.
- upcoming events.
- Awards and honors.
- Links to business information, such as the “About Us” page, the “Team,” “Careers,” and so on.
- Links to customer service.
- Apps (Google Play Store and the App Store).
- Subscription to a newsletter.
How to edit footer in WordPress Websites?
Changing footer content in the theme with Customizer
This is a simple method to follow.
- Go to the WordPress Admin Dashboard and log in.
- Select Appearance -> Customize from the drop-down menu. You’ll be brought to the WordPress theme’s Customizer that you have installed and activated.
- Go to Theme Settings and locate the footer section.
- In the settings option, you can make changes the way you like.
Don’t you think it’s quite straightforward?
If this isn’t enough for you, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get ready for the next approach.
Style your WordPress footer using CSS
You can do this in the theme’s Customizer.
- Go to Appearance > Customize from the WordPress Dashboard.
- The next step is to locate “Additional CSS”.
- A window will appear where you can paste the code.
The website preview on the right will show all of the changes you make. When you’re ready to go live, don’t forget to press “Publish.”
Editing the Footer Text Manually
What if your theme’s customizer doesn’t allow you to change the text in the footer? You’ll need to change the footer.php file in this situation. It’s a template file that exists in your WordPress theme folder and is in charge of displaying the theme’s footer area.
Using an FTP client to access your WordPress Hosting is the simplest way to modify this.
Download the /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/footer.php file, first and open it in a text editor.
You’ll need to locate the line in the file that says “Powered by WordPress.” This is how the Twenty Twenty theme looks:
<div class="footer-credits"> <p class="footer-copyright">© <?php echo date_i18n( /* translators: Copyright date format, see https://www.php.net/date */ _x( 'Y', 'copyright date format', 'twentytwenty' ) ); ?> <a href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a> </p><!-- .footer-copyright --> <p class="powered-by-wordpress"> <a href="<?php echo esc_url( __( 'https://wordpress.org/', 'twentytwenty' ) ); ?>"> <?php _e( 'Powered by WordPress', 'twentytwenty' ); ?> </a> </p><!-- .powered-by-wordpress --></div><!-- .footer-credits -->Simply delete or replace that content, then re-upload your footer.php file.
Before making any modifications, make a duplicate of your footer.php file. That way, if you ruin something by accident, you can immediately re-upload the original file.
Making changes to the footer in WordPress by using widgets.
Using widgets is another way to make changes to the footer in WordPress. Widgets are content blocks that can be added to footers, sidebars, and other places of WordPress. Some widgets let you display the most recent blog posts in a sidebar or a custom picture in the footer. You can find the widget in the Customizer in the WordPress Dashboard.
Editing WordPress footers widgets in the Customizer
- In the Customizer. From the left-hand menu, select “Widgets.”
- Using widgets in the Customizer you can make modifications to the footer.
- This theme has two pre-defined widget areas in the footer. This varies depending on the theme.
- In the”Footer widget area 1.” Archives, Categories, and Meta are the three widgets available. The “Add a widget” button can be used to add more widgets. You’ll find a list of additional widgets too. Let’s presume you want to have Google reviews; you can do so with a widget. Perhaps you’d like a menu there; there’s a widget for all of that.
- If none of the other options fit your needs, there’s always the “Custom HTML widget.”
- You can reorder widgets after you pick one or uninstall an existing one.
Editing WordPress footers widgets in the WordPress Dashboard
- Navigate to “Appearance-> Widgets” from the Dashboard.
- The list of available widgets can be found on the left.
- You’ll see the footer widget parts on the right, which you’ll need to fill in with the widgets you’ve chosen.
- Drag and remove the widgets you like to one of the footer areas from the left-hand list.
- Widgets don’t need a lot of adjustment. You normally give them a title, press “Save,” then “Done,” and you’re done.
Removing the ‘Powered by WordPress’ Text from Your Footer
Your site may have a ‘Powered by WordPress’ link in the footer bar at the bottom when you initially install WordPress. Since this is not a widget, it’s not always simple to know how to remove it.
Some themes will change the text and link to their own. In this case, you need to change it using the live theme customizer. In your WordPress admin, navigate to Themes » Customizer. Look for a way to change the footer of your website:
For example, we’ll use the Astra theme. You must go to Footer > Footer Bar in the customizer using Astra. After that, you’ll be able to edit the text in your footer bar.
Don’t forget to click the Publish button at the top of the screen once you’ve done modifying the text to make your changes live. View your website now to see your updated footer:
Last Words
Wrapping up, we hope website footer editing is no longer a mystery to you. You should be able to customize the website footer properly if you follow any best practices and design principles. Consequently, you should have a higher chance of people recognizing your website.