How To Edit Footer in WordPress?

The footer in WordPress websites contains copyright information, links to privacy policy, terms of service, contact details and sometimes even a sitemap. Modifying the footer as per your brand guidelines and business needs is important. In this detailed guide, we will show you how to edit footer in WordPress correctly.

Prerequisites Before Editing Footer

Before you can edit the footer, make sure that:

• You have installed WordPress and have admin access to make changes.
• You have decided on the footer content that needs to be displayed like copyright text, additional links, address etc.
• The theme you are using allows editing footer from the backend. Some themes do not have options to change footer text and links.

Steps To Edit Footer Text

Follow these steps to edit the footer copyright text, links and other content:

1.  Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
2.  Appearance > Widgets. The widget management page loads where you can modify widgets in the footer.
3.  Go to Footer section and you will see widgets available in it. The common ones are Text and Navigation Menu. The number and types of widgets may vary based on theme.
4.  To edit just the copyright text in footer, expand the Text widget. Change the title if needed and modify the content in text area to adjust copyright text.
5.  To change footer navigation links, expand the Navigation Menu widget. Choose the menu you want to display or create a new menu under Appearance > Menus page.
6.  Append additional HTML code like mail address, and phone number under the HTML widget and save changes.
7.  Visit the front-end site to see updated footer section.

If anything goes wrong and your website becomes unusable, contact an expert emergency WordPress support service.

How To Edit Footer Via Theme File Editor

If your theme does not allow editing footer via widgets or other options, you can directly modify the footer.php template file. If this is too technical, you may get help from a WordPress update service.

1. Install and activate a file editor plugin like Code Editor.
2. Appearance > Editor. It will open theme file editor.
3. On the right pane, navigate to Footer folder and click footer.php file to open it.
4. Now edit the HTML structure and source code before the closing </footer> tag. Make sure not to remove this tag.
5. Add additional classes, ID attributes or inline CSS within the footer element to customize styling.
6. Save the changes and visit site front-end to see your updated footer section.

Tips to Keep in Mind When Editing WordPress Footer

Here are some additional tips that can help in editing the footer efficiently:

• If you don’t see footer section under Appearance > Widgets, your current theme does not support adding widgets in the footer. In that case, edit it via theme file editor.
• Use child themes if you modify theme files directly, as updates may overwrite your changes.
• It is better to control footer via widgets instead of editing code as it does not require editing template files again and again.
• Use footer HTML ID and classes judiciously for clean code and better styling control.
• For complex customization, you may need to edit respective CSS files along with PHP files.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I change copyright text in the WordPress footer?

The easiest way to modify copyright text in your WordPress site’s footer is by using the Text widget. Go to Appearance > Widgets and look for the Footer section. Expand the Text widget and you can do the changes as needed.

2. Can I show different footers on specific pages?

Yes, it is possible to display different footer content on some pages of your WordPress site. The easiest way is by using conditional tags or page ID within the text/HTML widget to check if you are on a specific page.

3. My footer widgets are not showing properly. How to fix this?

This can happen due to issues with the page layout CSS. Make sure that the footer has a container or wrap division within which your widgets can properly take space. Check if the body content or other elements are not overflowing out of layout and covering the footer space. If the issue still exists, you can hire a WordPress developer and fix it.

Final Words

Now you know how to edit footer in WordPress websites. The footer section in WordPress sites contains vital links and branding elements. Customizing it as per your need is important after theme setup. Using available theme settings, widgets or editing code manually allows you to easily change footer content or styling. Just make sure to take backups before editing existing theme files. This helps avoid losing important theme components.