Last Updated on June 6, 2024 by Sunny Staff
Your website footer might seem like a minor detail, but it plays a very important role in enhancing your site’s usability and overall user experience. It’s often the last thing visitors see, and can provide essential information, important navigation links, and valuable resources. By editing the WordPress footer directly, you can customize it to better reflect your brand, improve visitor interaction, and drive conversions. In this guide, we’ll show you how to take control of your WordPress footer, turning it into a powerful tool for engaging your audience.
For many site owners the challenge is to decide what to include in the website footer. Ideally this should be a combination of your visitors’ needs and your website goals. For example, including links to important pages can help people find what they want faster. Similarly, including an FAQ means visitors will find the information they’re looking for without navigating away from the current page. But the footer can also be used to display banner ads linking to your campaigns, and to collect email addresses through newsletter signups.
What to Include In Your Website Footer
To get the ball rolling and the idea juices flowing, here are some common elements often included in website footers.
Navigation: Provide quick access to important pages. If you’re just starting out or don’t have too many pages, use your site’s main menu. Alternatively, create a footer menu (Appearance > Menus) that contains important pages, campaign pages, or even products.
Contact Information: Adding contact information in the footer adds a little convenience; visitors don’t have to navigate away from their current page. Here you can include email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses.
Social Media Links: Visitors will often want to stay in touch through the social platforms they regularly use. Include links to your social media accounts to help visitors connect with you.
Additional Resources: Include a short FAQ in your footer to answer the most common questions, and add a link to the complete FAQ. You can also include links to support pages, blogs, and other resources your visitors may find useful.
Legal Information: Copyright information, terms of use, disclaimers, and other links to important legal information is usually included right at the bottom of your footer.
Newsletter Signup: Use your site’s footer to collect visitor email addresses for your newsletter, or to receive updates when you add new products or services that could be useful.
Trust Signals: Add logos, certifications, affiliations, and mentions about awards to foster trust in your brand.
Also read: Tips to Grow Your WordPress Blog in 2023
4 Easy Ways to Edit The Footer in WordPress
The 4 main ways to edit the footer in WordPress is to add widgets to your theme’s footer widget areas (included with most themes), use WordPress’s built-in customizer or a page builder (such as Elementor Pro), or by editing the footer.php file (recommended only for advanced users). All other methods are usually some kind of variation of each of these methods.
Use widgets to add content to your footer
Editing the WordPress footer directly isn’t always necessary. Most footers come with widget areas that can be used to easily add content.
Navigate to Appearance > Widgets and look for the Widget Areas dedicated to the footer. The screenshot below shows GeneratePress’s footer widget areas:
All widget areas are empty, which means the front-end will be pretty bare:
We can go ahead and start adding elements to the individual widget areas:
Here we’ve added the logo, some text, and social icons to the footer’s widget areas.
Edit the WordPress footer with the customizer
Most themes come with a built-in footer that can be styled using the WordPress customizer. For many themes, the customizer is presented as a panel on the left-hand side of the page. Here’s the Customizer for the popular Astra theme:
For other themes, like WordPress’s Twenty Twenty-Four, the customizer opens up the WordPress block editor where the footer can be edited as a template part:
Navigate to Appearance > Themes. Hover your mouse over your active theme, and click Customize.
Click on Patterns and Manage all template parts. Click on Footer in the list of Template Parts.
Also read: Tutorial: WordPress Website Building for Beginners
Edit the WordPress footer with a page builder (Elementor Pro)
Page builders such as Elementor Pro provide drag-and-drop designing which makes it easy to directly edit the WordPress footer. As an added bonus, you can create multiple footers and display them conditionally. Here’s how to edit the WordPress footer with Elementor Pro:
Within the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Templates > Theme Builder.
Click on Footer on the Theme Builder panel.
Select a footer template that matches your desired layout. You’ll be asked if you want to apply the settings of the block. Unless you’re using other elements from the same series, it’s advisable to choose ‘Don’t apply’ to maintain your current theme settings.
Edit your footer. Click publish when you’re done.
The Publish Settings page gives you the option to add display conditions to your footer. Here you can select whether to show the footer for all pages or only some pages.
Repeat this process to use different footers on different pages of your site.
How to edit footer.php
The last option to edit the WordPress footer directly is by editing the footer.php file – for those with a working knowledge of PHP. It’s strongly recommended to create a backup of your entire site before you begin editing your site’s code.
The footer.php file is located in your theme directory. For example, when using Astra, footer.php is located at /wp-content/themes/astra. But when using Twenty Twenty-Four, the footer is located in one of the pattern files located in wp-content/themes/twentytwentyfour/pattern. Which file it is will depend on which one of the templates is currently active.
Normally you can edit the footer.php file by navigating to Appearance > Theme File Editor, as indicated in the image below.
However, the Theme File Editor is often deemed a security risk, and can be disabled by security plugins or system administrators. Where this is the case you’ll have to download the file via FTP, edit it, and reupload it. If you have access to a web control panel like cPanel, you can use the built-in file editor to edit the footer.php file.
FAQ: How to edit the WordPress footer directly
What are the best practices for footer design?
Best practices for footer design include maintaining a clean and simple layout, ensuring readability, keeping the design consistent with your site’s overall look and feel, and making sure it includes essential elements that improve usability and promote your site’s goals at the same time.
Can I include scripts and tracking codes in my footer?
Yes, you can include scripts and tracking codes in your site’s footer. One way to do this is to edit the footer.php file directly. Alternatively, you can use a plugin like Insert Script In Header And Footer. Caution is necessary here since scripts can affect your site’s performance and functionality.
Can I use a footer template?
If you’re lucky, you may find a footer template that needs very little editing. Or, if your site is template-based, a footer design is probably already included. However, in most cases footer templates may need some work to match the design of your site, and to incorporate all elements relevant to your website.
Can I edit the WordPress footer without coding knowledge?
Yes, there are several ways to edit the WordPress footer without any coding knowledge. If your theme includes widget areas, you can add widgets to your site’s footer. You can also use the block editor or a page builder like Elementor Pro to edit your site’s footer with drag-and-drop functionality.
What if my theme doesn’t support footer widgets?
If your theme doesn’t support footer widgets, use the block editor. Alternatively, use a page builder like Elementor Pro to edit the WordPress footer directly and create a custom footer regardless of your theme’s capabilities.
How do I create a footer menu?
Adding a menu to the footer can help improve visitor navigation through your site. In many cases, however, your footer navigation won’t be the same as the main navigation in your site’s header – footer navigation often only includes links to main section pages and/or important site pages.
Creating footer navigation can either be achieved using individual custom links, or you can use the exact same process you used to create your main navigation. Here’s how to achieve the latter:
Navigate to Appearance > Menus, and click on the Create a New Menu link.
Give your menu a name, such as ‘Footer Menu,’ and click on Create Menu. Then, add pages to your menu from the Pages section on the left, and click Save Menu when you’re done.
Also read: How to Add a Search Bar to Your WordPress Menu
What is the best way to ensure my footer looks good on all devices?
Use responsive design techniques to ensure your footer looks good on all devices. Most modern themes and page builders automatically handle responsiveness. When editing the footer, check the mobile and tablet views in the WordPress customizer or your page builder to ensure it appears correctly on different screen sizes.
Conclusion
Editing the WordPress footer directly gives you complete control over this critical part of your website. Whether you’re adding essential navigation links, contact information, social media icons, or custom scripts, a well-crafted footer can significantly enhance user experience and support your website goals. You can tailor your footer by utilizing widgets, the WordPress customizer, page builders like Elementor Pro, or directly editing the footer.php file to perfectly suit your needs. Start experimenting with your footer today, and transform it into a powerful tool for engagement and conversion.
You don’t need to be a WordPress wizard to have an outstanding footer. With Sunny HQ’s managed WordPress services, you can simply tell us your vision, and we’ll bring it to life. Sign up today and get expert WordPress website assistance that enables engagement and conversion. Start making your footer work for you!
