How to change or remove the footer copyright - WordPress

 

Whether you are new to WordPress or have been using it for a while, you have definitely encountered the branded copyright Proudly powered by WordPress at the very bottom of your site. For you, it may not be a big deal, but sometimes when the visitors see the default text on every page, it gives them a sense of unprofessionalism, which is for sure, not beneficial for you. This article is here to light you up with an easy technique, how to remove or change WordPress branded signature or theme signature from your site. Before we start, I'd like to mention that the topic of this article was prompted by one of our clients, so feel free to add up to our WordPress Related Blog with your ideas. Now, to continue from where we started, let's first understand what the theme footer is.

 

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What Is The Theme Footer In WordPress

Let's first understand what components a WP website has. Typically, they are three: Header, Main Body, Footer. In the terms of web design, the Footer is the bottom part of your website. It is defined in the footer.php file, which typically remains unchanged for every page of your site. Normally it contains general information about your website (such as credits, copyright notices, privacy policy, also contact information, product or website FAQ, address, date and etc.), not the pages. The theme developer can also include code and scripts here (not necessarily). Whether it contains general information or a listed menu, it never changes while going through pages.

When you are new to WordPress you may ignore this field at first, but after a while, when you become a professional, you consider it as an advantage to using in your business. Footer part can be a great SEO opportunity, also, can become a help for your visitors. As, whenever a person visits a new site, after spending some time there, he usually scrolls down to the bottom, to learn more about the owner, to go through social media icons and so more. On WordPress, you may come across some themes, that allow you to remove or change the footer, but as usual, they don't have such a function. Though, it is not impossible to do that!

There are different ways of doing so, but we generalized them into 3 main methods:

1. Inside your theme
2. Using a plugin
3. Using a full customized code

Now, let's look through each of them thoroughly.

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Three Ways To Customize The Theme Footer

Do The Changes Manually Inside Your Theme

The first method refers directly to the theme. Depending on what theme you use, it might give you the option to customize the footer.

To do so, you need to go Appearance> Customize, and if your theme supports footer change, you will see the "change the footer" or a similar option right in the Footer settings.

 

 

Here you can easily do the changes. Generally, you are able to change the Background color, Layout, and other content without any coding skills, which makes it very simple.

The theme may also let you change or add some information in the footer, but not remove/edit the Proudly powered by WordPress text. Some themes also give an opportunity to customize the Footer for different devices.

Though, if you can't see the"change the footer" option then you need to continue reading

 

Use A Plugin For Editing the Footer

If your theme doesn't give you the possibility, you can use a plugin to do the changes. You can achieve full customization with a good Page Builder plugin, e.g. Elementor. This plugin lets you create and apply custom Headers and Footers for your website. Commonly, using WordPress themes you can't change footers and headers for different pages, but Elementor supports this kind of functionality.

If you are not using page builders for your WP site, then you can use Footer plugins to be able to make changes.

 

Use A Full Customized Code For Your Footer

This option is the most practical one among the others, as it always works. This time you need to edit the footer.php file of your theme. Though this method is the most reliable one and doesn't require downloading a plugin, it isn't very easy to do, especially for beginners.

First of all, Footer is considered to be a part of the theme, hence you have to work with the files of your active theme.

 

 

What do you need to do? When you go to Appearance> Theme Editor, you will see the theme's style.css file at your disposal. At the right side menu, open the footer.php file and do your changes here. Don't forget to hit the Update File button when you are done.

If for any possible reason you can't open the Theme Editor, there are still other ways to reach your footer.php file. The first thing that comes to your mind may be via a file editing plugin, which is, of course, a reasonable solution.

But if you don't want to use a plugin, and moreover, you don't have the Theme Editor, the last thing you can do is open the file with FTP access (or from the File manager of your CPanel).

Here is the path: wp-content > themes > {active theme's folder} for example, twentytwentyone. Now search for "footer.php" and do your editing or remove it completely.

Please note, that you will be able to customize the file via the methods written in this section, if you have basic HTML and PHP, or at least HTML knowledge.

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Always Do Backup Before Making Changes

In general, whenever you are about to make changes to your WordPress website, make sure to do a backup. This way you are securing your current content, in case something accidentally breaks or goes wrong. If you skip this step, you won't be able to fix it and will most definitely lose some valuable information from your site.

Backup restores the data of your site and protects the information. Why is this necessary? Because no one is secured from hacking, crashing or any misfunctions.

You can back up your website manually or by using a backup plugin. We would recommend the UpdraftPlus plugin because it is among the best ones.

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What To Add To The Footer While Customizing

As you previously noticed, the theme footer in WordPress is already predefined. But if you are reading to this point, then you already know how to change or edit it. The real question is, what to add to the footer and why. Here are the most important and useful things that we would suggest you take into account:

About Us

Of course, your website most probably has a separate page for the About Us section, but including some short information in the Footer will make it better. Your company name, logo, and a short paragraph to give the reader a quick picture of what you do and why should they keep exploring your site.

Contact Information

The next thing your reader is most likely to search for is the contact info. Leave your address, postal index, email, and a telephone number, for them to be easier to reach you. But don't forget to be available via email, by using business phone providers, social media, and other channels to satisfy and support your customers. Also, don't forget to mention your working hours, so that they know when and how to contact you.

Site Navigation

It is very comfortable for the visitors to see a navigation menu on the Footer. Having this, they will be able to easily find whatever pages they need and surely won't suffer searching them. It is not necessary to put all of the links here. You can choose some among the most searched sections, depending on what type of website you own.

Call-to-action

This button is usually placed in many different parts of the website, and the Footer is not an exception. You can include a "subscribe to our newsletter" or a similar button, to engage more followers. If you want to make the call to action more eye-catchy the footer might not be the best option and you can simply create a subscription form popup.

Social Media Buttons

I assure you, the majority of your visitors search for your social media in the first place. So why not redirect them straight to the point? This will not only be in help of them but also will boost your social media insights.

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If you don't know which WordPress theme to use for your website read the article 10+ Best Drag & Drop WordPress Themes and choose the best one which will satisfy all your needs.

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Is It Legal To Remove The WordPress Footer Copyright From Your Website?

We hear this question very often, and the answer is YES, it is completely legal.

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system, which means that you are free to modify and make any changes of your preference. It doesn't matter, that your theme has its own copyrights, you can freely change that too.

But in case the copyright office decided that it is essential for you to have your copyright notice in the website that it is not recommended to delete it.

 

Long story short…

I hope this article was helpful and informative for you. Again, we are open to any of your article suggestions, just make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section under this post.

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