Easy Ways to Edit a Footer in WordPress 

Are you sick of looking at your generic footer in WordPress? If you want to edit the footer in WordPress but have no idea how – you’ve come to the right place.

Your typical WordPress website is made up of three main components. The first is the header, followed by the main, and the third. The footer.

The main section of your WordPress website can usually be changed or tweaked for new pages or posts. The header and footer, though, typically remain the same. This includes things like listed menus and font styles.

Why Edit the Footer in WordPress?

You might be wondering why you even bother editing your WordPress site’s footer. Your footer is a crucial part of your WordPress site. This is where some of your most important information is featured – so you should make the most of it.

Why not spend a little time customizing? You can add or remove things, change the style, and add links to any of your policies and social media platforms.

Another thing you need to remember is that most WordPress themes also come with around three or four widget areas. If you want to integrate something like Google Analytics or Google AdSense verification, you can add the relevant codes to your footer.

How to Edit the Footer in WordPress?

There are several ways to edit your footer in WordPress. Let’s look at the most common options.

Theme Settings

Firstly, the most common place where you might discover what is in your footer is located within your theme’s settings. While there is no set formula for finding your theme’s setting in the menu, here are a few of the places you might want to look:

1. The Settings menu
2. The Appearance menu and then the Themes menu
3. As a main menu on its own
4. Under the Appearance, then the Customize section

It all depends on the theme that you’re using. As soon as you find your theme settings, you can go ahead and see where they are. From there, you should be able to find the footer settings quite easily.

Appearance Widgets

If looking under your theme settings didn’t help, another option is to check the widget settings. Many themes typically offer users a number of columns where they can add widgets right at the bottom of the page—aka the footer.

Here are a few places where you can find the footer settings:

1. Go to the WordPress admin panel, then select Appearance, then Widgets
2. Find the footer section on the right section of the screen
3. Locate the Text blocks inside the footer section
4. Expand said Text blocks
5. Find any text in the footer that you’d want to edit, then click Save

Theme’s Footer.php

Warning: If you make a mistake using this method, you could damage your website. Please make sure to create a backup before proceeding with this option.

This is by far the riskiest method mentioned. You should know this right off the bat. You could damage your site if you make a mistake while editing your theme’s footer.php file.

Only use this method if you know how to code to ensure this doesn’t happen. It would help if you also remembered that when you update your theme, it is most likely that the changes get overwritten.

It’s also a good idea to create a child theme. This way, your original theme will not be altered before you make the changes.

Here is how to go ahead with the Theme’s Footer.Php:

1. Head to Appearance, then select Editor
2. Go to the Select theme to edit and choose your active theme from the drop-down box
3. Look at the column on the right-hand side and locate the file names footer.php – click on it
4. Submit the code to change the footer
5. Hit Update File to save all your changes

What to Add to Your WordPress Footer

Now that you know how to edit your WordPress footer, you might be wondering what to add to this section instead. Of course, this all depends on your website and your industry.

If you run a blog and use affiliate marketing, you can start by adding the most popular posts widget to your footer, which will increase both page views and time spent on your site.

Fashion bloggers might want to add pictures from their official Instagram account. There are useful plugins, such as the Instagram Feed Gallery, which handles all your image fetching, embedding, and other issues.

If you wish to contact your customers or peers, you can ensure better networking by introducing and integrating a Google Calendar within your site. This way, you can feature all your upcoming events for your website visitors.

Final Word

There are several ways to edit your footer in WordPress—which one you use depends on your skillset. You will want to try the first option if you are a beginner without coding skills. It is the easiest, and you won’t have to worry about creating a child theme.

Using the footer.php editing method can be tricky. This should be strictly limited to advanced users, as it can damage your site. Now that you know how to change a footer in WordPress, what are you waiting for?