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Some of the elements in your website might not seem that important at first glance, but they can provide immense value to your users in the long-run. A website footer is one such thing that helps your users in navigating your site. Hence, learning how to edit footer in WordPress can help you in making the most out of it.
Do you know there are several methods to edit WordPress footers? Whether you are looking to simplify user navigation or are looking to add more pages in your footer, this article will help you do both and much more.
In this post, you’ll learn why exactly you should be editing WordPress footers in the first place. You’ll get to know four ways in which you can easily edit WordPress footers. Wouldn’t it be great if you learn how to place all your social media logos in your Footer? And in the end, you’ll learn about some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Let’s dive right in.
Defining a Footer in WordPress
A WordPress website has four sections: header, body, Footer, and at times a sidebar. The header resides at the top of the website. Whenever the user visits the website, the header is the first thing that the user notices.
It’s like one main header of your website that shows on each page of your website. You can place critical elements of your website in the header. Things like essential links, the logo, menu and the Call to action (CTA) button to resonate the audience with what the website does.
The Footer in WordPress shares similar features as the header. Both of the sections are fixed and displayed on every page of your website, which contains essential information regarding your website. The critical difference between the two is a header is placed at the top of your website while the Footer is placed at the end of the page.
A footer often contains a sitemap, the legal disclaimer, more about the company. Some of the elements that are placed on the Footer are as follows:
- Privacy Policy and The Terms of the website
- Affiliate program information
- Copyright information and date of creation.
- Resource links
- Blog link
- Contact information
The elements of the Footer are stored in the footer.php file of the core WordPress theme. Before discussing how to edit a Footer in WordPress, let’s try to understand why a webmaster would feel the need to make changes in the footer.
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Why is there a need to Change the Footer?
Once you first install a WordPress theme, you’ll see the Footer with a ‘Powered by WordPress’ copyright displayed at the Footer on the page.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, but this does not intrigue the visitors on your website. They might think that the owner of the website was lazy enough to not replace the Footer text.
But since Footer will appear on every page of your website, it is necessary to integrate your branding on the Footer rather than promoting WordPress.
Every time a user gets interested in your offerings, footers might be the first location where they look for more details. So, it is necessary to ensure your footer.
Here is what you can change in the footer section of the WordPress website:
- Changing the colours and replacing the logo with your brand logo is smart to market your brand.
- Changing the single column with a multiple-column footer gives you massive space to place more items.
- The social media icons and contact information.
- Any USPS can easily be placed to highlight the strength of the brand.
It’s vital to learn how to edit a WordPress footer because editing it can assist you in maximizing user engagement and can also reduce the bounce rates. You can easily organize your items and highlight the things that are most important for your brand. Ultimately, doing all of this will create a beautiful footer that can boost your brand’s perception.
Why is there a need to Change the Footer?
You can edit a WordPress footer through various methods. Whatever you choose depends upon different factors like, how much experience you have with WordPress or the theme you choose for your brand and the changes you are willing to do for your brand.
Let’s look at various methods in which you can edit the WordPress footer:
- Editing the Footer With Theme Customizer
- Making changes in the Widget
- Using a Plugin to Edit the Footer
- Editing Code in Footer.php file
- Editing the Footer With Theme Customizer
The fastest way to change things on the Footer is to take help from a WordPress Theme Customizer. If you are not comfortable with coding or don’t prefer a plugin to make your website changes, this is the recommended method to edit the footer..
But to use this tool, you must know if your selected theme supports this tool or not. You can find it by going to the Appearance option > click on “Customize” from the WordPress menu.
Here look for the ‘Footer’ section and proceed with it.
The options might vary a little bit based upon the theme that you are using. You might find the footer editing option under the Menu tab. You can easily change the colours, the content from the WordPress theme customizer.
The Customizer option will help you in implementing the changes in real-time. There are controls at the bottom, which you can choose to change, and the result will appear in different screen sizes.
Once you’ve done the changes, you can click the Publish button, and you can see the changes there. It’s a simple method to make changes in the Footer.
- Making changes in the Widget
Some of the themes let you edit and modify the Footer right from the Widget in the Customizer option. However, if you cannot find the Customizer, you can easily edit the Footer with the Widget.
Browse to Widgets from the Appearance option in the dashboard.
You’ll see all the Widgets that are available to you. For different themes, options might vary. However, for basic themes of WordPress, the footer option is placed at the right.
To make changes in the Footer, Widget clicks the arrow at the top left of the footer tab.
Now you can make the changes. You have two options to make the edits: text editor or the visual editor. Once, you’ve made the changes; you can click the save button and go back to the dashboard.
You can delete the Widget by selecting Delete from the menu, and similarly, you can add a Widget by clicking on the Widget that appears in the footer section.
- Using a Plugin to Edit the Footer
If you don’t want to use the WordPress Customizer or you don’t have coding skills, you can use a plugin to edit the Footer. There are tons of WordPress footer editing plugins out there. You can check and test the functionality that you need in the Footer.
The variety of plugins contains different options that will help you to edit different elements in your Footer. You need to choose the plugin that will be the right fit for you.
For instance, the Elementor Page Builder plugin will help you to edit the Footer in WordPress most simply.
A free extension will help you to make the necessary changes within minutes. You will be presented with a drag-and-drop option available in the builder. You can even design the Footer yourself. Take help from the ‘Before Footer’ template and make the necessary changes as per your need.
You can add the Elementor plugin just by going to ‘Add New’ and look for ‘Elementor footer’. Just by installing the Footer and by activating you’ll be able to take control of the Footer.
Once you’ve installed the plugin, you can go to ‘Header Footer & Blocks’ option from the theme and begin editing.
To change, click on ‘Add New’ from your template’s dropdown menu and select Footer.
Elementor WordPress plugin will add a new footer, and you can make the necessary changes from there.
Here, you’ll be presented with tons of settings. You can change the setting and see what the changes are. You can customize the Footer and see the changes in the display.
You can easily drag and drop each item and place them on the right to add them on the Footer.
There are a variety of available options, which are most commonly used by popular WordPress powered sites. You can use them to ensure your footer looks exactly how you want it to be.
This is one of the best plugins to add or edit a footer without knowing any code at all. You can change the features, add things, and save them without any fear. You can even learn more features if you check the documentation of the Elementor plugin.
- Editing Code in Footer.php file
This is a little technical method to edit the Footer. This can be used with the help of a developer. If you don’t know how to program, I suggest leaving this method to the experts because changing your central theme might cause problems to the website.
Also, know that you don’t have to remove any lines to edit the Footer. You need to add some lines to change whatever you need to be changed in the Footer.
To edit this, you need to go to the Theme Editor in the Appearance tab.
You need to locate the code ‘footer.php’ which might be present in your Theme Footer area.
Here, you can code and make the necessary changes that you want in your Footer. A website developer will know what to do. So, if you plan to use this option, tell the developer what changes you need in the Footer, and the developer will be able to make the necessary changes and click the save button so that you can see the necessary changes.
Caution: Since the footer.php is in the main file of WordPress, it is advised that you hire a freelancer developer or use an internal developer to make the necessary changes. If your site is hosted at bionicWP and you have activated the add on “unlimited edits” our team of WordPress engineers would make any changes that you want in your websites footer. Because changing anything without knowledge might harm the features of your main website.
How To Add Social Media Buttons In Your Footer?
There are tons of methods, which you can use to add social media logos or icons in your WordPress footer. It mostly depends upon your theme. How do you want your icons to be placed? You can even add social media icons from the Customizer option. Another way is to add the icons from the code.
If you are editing for the first time, you may choose the plugin to edit the Footer. You can use Social Icons Widget, which can easily place the icons.
The Widget will help you configure the colors, change the alignment, and even size the social media icons you place.
You can change the social media icons URLs and direct them to your respective pages in the down dropdown menu.
That’s it. You don’t have to know anything else to make changes in the social media icons. A simple plugin can take care of the icons that you place in your Footer.
Wrapping Up
The footer section present at the bottom of your page is vital to your website design. Even though the user might not see it at first, if the user is serious about buying something from you, they might check the footer tab to get more details about your business.
The footer of your site is where you can place your best links and give the user a strong impression about what your brand stands for and how you are different from other brands. Now, you’ve learned how to edit a WordPress footer, get down and make the necessary changes you want in your Footer.
Feel free to comment if you have any questions.
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