How to Edit the Footer in WordPress [Beginner Guide]

Struggling with how to edit the footer in WordPress?

In WordPress, the footer section appears at the bottom of your website and typically contains information such as copyright notices, contact details, and links. Customizing the footer allows you to add your own personal touch and make your website more unique.

In this beginner’s guide, we will explore different methods to edit the footer in WordPress.

Let’s get started!

What Is a WordPress Footer?

A WordPress footer is the section at the bottom of each page on a WordPress website. It usually contains site-wide information such as links to important pages, copyright notices, social media icons, and contact details. It can be customized to include widgets, menus, and additional content.

How to Edit the Footer in WordPress

Now that you know what a WordPress footer is, let’s take a look at how to edit it.

1. Editing WordPress Footer With Widgets

Using the WordPress built-in widget system is one of the easiest ways to edit the footer. However, this only applies to themes with a footer widget space. If yours does not, simply use a different method.

To access the widget area, simply go to Appearance » Widgets from your WordPress dashboard.

From here, you will see all your available footer widgets.

Remember that your theme may have a different number of footer sections than the one shown above. For this guide, we’ll use the Astra theme.

To edit the footer widget, simply click on it. Once open, customize your text, images, links, and other things as you want.

Once done, click the Update button to save your changes.

Adding Links to WordPress Footer Widget Area

To add links to the footer widget area, simply go to Appearance » Menus from your WordPress admin dashboard and click the Create New Menu link.

Next, WordPress will ask you to give your new menu a name.

Enter a name that will help you recognize this menu. Then select the right footer location and click the Create Menu button.

Now that your new menu has been created, you can start adding links to it.

Simply choose the pages, posts, or categories from the left-hand column to add them to your menu.

Once you are finished customizing your menu, click on the Save Menu button.

Now to add your new menu to the footer widget area, simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page in your WordPress admin panel.

Now, click and open the footer widgets where you want to show your new menu and click on the Plus icon. Next, search for Menu, then click the Navigation Menu block.

After that, choose your footer navigation menu from the Select Menu drop-down and give your widget a title if you want. The title will show above the menu in your footer.

Finally, save your changes by clicking on the Update button.

Now, visit your website and see how your custom footer links look.

2. Edit the Footer in WordPress with Theme Customizer

The WordPress Theme Customizer is an excellent tool for changing the look and feel of your WordPress site. The Customizer lets you change the footer, colors, fonts, and other styling options. Additionally, you can add customized menus and widgets to your footer.

To edit the footer with WordPress Customizer, go to Appearance » Customize from your WordPress dashboard.

You will see the header, site identity, menu, widgets, and other theme settings from here.

To edit the footer, select Footer Builder from the available theme options.

In this example, we’re using the Astra WordPress theme, and the footer section is named Footer Builder.

Footer Builder contains –

Visual Footer Builder

It is a flexible and advanced footer builder. Any changes you make in the visual builder will be reflected immediately in your footer design.

It provides you with three rows to create a unique footer structure: Above, Primary, and Below.
You can add different footer items by clicking on the plus sign – Button, HTML, Footer Menu, Widgets, Social, Copyright.
You can place widgets by dragging and dropping them into different areas.

General Tab

Elements added in the visual footer builder will appear on the General tab. You can change the settings of any individual element by clicking on it.

Design Tab

This will give you design options for the footer background and spacing.

After you have finished editing the footer content, click the Publish button at the top. Then, go to your website to see the changes.

3. Removing ‘Powered by WordPress’ Copyright Footer Text

When you install WordPress, your site may have a Powered by WordPress link in the footer bar at the bottom. Since this isn’t a widget, it’s often not clear how to edit it.

Some themes will change this to their own text and links. If this is the case, you can change the text using the WordPress theme customizer. Simply navigate to Appearance » Customize in your WordPress admin panel.

Then, look for a heading named Footer Builder or something like that.

This takes you to a screen with customization options for changing the footer text, adding social media links, and more.

Simply click the Copyright button to change the footer text.

Then, replace the existing text with your own.

After you’ve finished editing the footer, remember to click the Publish button at the top to make your changes live.

Edit the Footer Text Manually

What if your theme doesn’t allow you to change the footer text using the customizer?

In this situation, you have to manually edit the footer.php file. It is a template file in your WordPress theme folder that displays the footer area for that specific theme.

The easiest way to edit this file is to use an FTP client with your WordPress hosting account.

First, download your footer.php file from your theme’s folder.

Then, in the file, look for the line of code containing the Powered by WordPress text.

Simply delete or edit that content, and then re-upload your footer.php file back to the server.

That’s it!

4. Edit Footer in WordPress Using Full Site Editing & Block Patterns

If you have a Block Theme, editing the footer in the WordPress Block Editor is a breeze. To demonstrate how simple this is, we’ll customize a footer using the Twenty Twenty-Two default theme.

Simply navigate to Appearance » Editor from your WordPress dashboard. This will open the block editor on your website’s home page.

Next, scroll down the page until you reach your site’s footer. After that, click on the footer section to start editing. You’ll be able to change the footer in the block editor just like you would a page or post.

Plus, you can also add block elements to your footer.

Furthermore, if you want to edit the footer, you can do so with the click Edit.

This launches a new editing view that removes all other page components except the footer you are editing. The block editor in this view functions similarly to the one in the previous view but with a bit more focus.

Copy Pre-made Footer Block Patterns

Patterns are a recent addition to the block editor. Patterns allow designers to build beautiful block configurations and share them with others. The Block Pattern Directory lists public patterns.

For our purposes, you can look for “footers” patterns. This will limit the options available to you. Hover over any pattern you like, copy it, and then return to your website. The pattern code will be copied to your clipboard and ready to paste.

Now, add a new Custom HTML block.

Next, paste the footer pattern code into the HTML Block.

After that, click on Preview and then convert the custom HTML to Blocks. This makes each item editable through the block editor.

You’ll notice in your editor that the pattern was successfully converted to blocks, which you may then change to suit your needs.

Once you’re done with your changes, click on the Save button.

That’s it!

5. Add Custom Code to WordPress Footer

Sometimes, you might want to add code snippets to your WordPress footer. This is often done to connect your website to third-party apps or plugins.

For example, to add Google Analytics tracking to your website, you’ll need to add a script to your WordPress header or footer.

Installing and activating the WPCode plugin is the quickest way to add scripts to your footer. For help, see this guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Code Snippets » Headers & Footers from your WordPress admin area. Then, paste your footer code into the Footer box.

When you’re finished, click the Save Changes button to store your settings.

Final Thought

The footer is an important part of your WordPress website. It’s the last thing users see before they leave. So it’s a great place to put important info like your contact details, social media links, and copyright information.

In this guide, we’ve shown you how to edit the footer in WordPress using five different methods.

No matter which method you choose, editing the footer in WordPress is a relatively simple process. By following the steps in this guide, you can easily create a footer that’s informative, engaging, and visually appealing.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to edit the footer in WordPress.

For more, check out these other helpful articles:

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Murtaza Malek

Web Engineer, Evid Learner and Reader, Techentreprenuer, Tech Evangelist.

12 July 2023