How To Change Widget Theme
Footers are so underrated. There are 2 main advantages to using website footers:
- helping with website navigation
- helping with SEO, by improving internal links
And if you're thinking that people don't scroll that down and that footers are not visible, well, guess again.
A study by Chartbeat revealed that they do scroll. And they've analyzed 25 million sessions across the web. More interesting was the fact that many visitors scroll down the page before it finishes loading, which means that no portion of a typical article is viewed by 100% of viewers and the very top of the page actually has about a 20% lower view rate than slightly farther down. This totally shocked me, just look at the graph below.
Now, without further ado, let's see what we're going to talk about in this article:
- what can you include in your WordPress footer
- footer inspiration
- how to create and edit your WordPress footer
Do we have a deal?
Let's roll.
What can you include in your WordPress footer?
Here's a list of things that can go inside your website's footer:
- Pages that didn't fit in in your main menu, but you want to make them easier to discover,
- Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions,
- Copyright claims,
- Sitemap,
- Social media icons,
- Awards and badges,
- Links to company information: about us page, team, career, board of advisors, etc.
- Affiliate and loyalty programs links,
- Latest blog articles,
- Links to resources: blog, knowledge base, courses, podcasts, etc.
- Upcoming events,
- Customer service links,
- Links to Google Play and App Store apps,
- Newsletter subscription,
and the list can definitely go on.
Now, don't include all of the above, you'll end up having a fat footer. Put yourself in the customers' shoes. What would they find useful?
Now, wanna see some real footers?
Footers to inspire you
- Hubspot (one of the most popular CRMs out there) – they have 5 main footer sections: popular product features, free tools, company, customers, and partners. Personally, I love that the free tools are listed there, it's a great shortcut. Whenever I do research, if customer and partnership data are not clear in the main menu, I'm so glad when I find them in the footer. It's a pattern to find partners' data in the footer.
How to edit footer in WordPress
Blink if you made it till here!
In this chapter, I'll show you 4 methods of editing footers in WordPress.
Usually, the footer design is controlled by your theme. If you're using a paid plan for your theme, there are probably lots of customizations available. For free themes, the options are kinda limited.
Let's get going.
1. Edit the WordPress footer code
If you're unhappy with your current footer and you can't customize it as you wish, but you know code, then this is for you.
!Important – this method of editing the WordPress footer is the most delicate one.
It is strongly recommended that you don't make modifications directly in the footer.php code lines. Instead, you should observe one of these best practices:
You should create a child theme and apply changes to the code of the corresponding footer file, in that child theme. Check this resource on how to create a child theme.
You should create a backup of your theme files. In case the theme breaks, you only need to revert to the previous theme version stored in the backup.
Another safe option is to comment on the code in the footer.php file. You don't need to remove any existing lines of code. Comment the code instead.
Now, let's see how you can change the footer.php file.
Make sure you're logged in to the WordPress Admin dashboard.
In the left-hand menu, go to Appearance -> Editor. Click on Editor.
In the list of theme files on the right side, search for the file named Theme Footer (footer.php). Click on it.
The coding lines will display as follows:
Now, it's time to put your coding skills to practice.
And that was it.
2. Change footer content in the theme Customizer
This one's an easy peasy method.
- Log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard.
- Go to Appearance -> Customize. You'll be taken to the Customizer of the WordPress theme you have installed and activated.
- Find the section dedicated to the footer.
I'm going to use the SkylineWP theme as an example.
In the settings option you can make the following adjustments:
- change footer background
- add new columns and rows
- change the text color
- decide which elements need to show on mobile devices or not
and more. We'll go more in-depth with this in our last chapter.
This particular customizer has some footer templates available as well.
Pretty straightforward, don't you think?
Now, if this is not enough, and you want more design options, it's time to roll up some sleeves and get ready for the next method.
3. Style your WordPress footer using CSS
You can do this inside the theme's Customizer as well.
From the WordPress Dashboard, select Appearance -> Customize. Next, you'll have to identify the Settings item inside the menu that shows up. In the SkylineWP case, it's "General Settings". Next, select "Additional CSS".
You'll see a window opening where you can paste your code.
All the changes that you'll do will be visible in the website preview on the right.
Don't forget to hit "Publish" when you want to go live.
Now, let's say you are no CSS geek but you want to remove the "Powered by WordPress" text that shows up in the footer. You'll need one line of code for that. You'll just have to paste it in the white space as shown below. For more comprehensive methods on the topic, the article How to Remove "Proudly Powered by WordPress" from the WPklik folks is as good as it gets.
4. How to edit footer widget in WordPress
Another method for making changes to the footer in WordPress is by using widgets. In WordPress, widgets are blocks of content that you can add to footers, sidebars, and other areas.
Some widgets allow you to add the latest blog articles to a sidebar, or a custom image to the footer. But I'll show you a list of such widgets a bit later.
Widgets can be found in:
- the Customizer
- the WordPress Dashboard
Editing WordPress footers using widgets inside the Customizer
So, we're still inside the Customizer. Go to "Widgets" from the menu on the left.
This particular theme has two predefined footer widget areas. This differs from theme to theme.
Let's check "Footer widget area 1". It has 4 widgets: Archives, Categories, Meta, and Gallery. More widgets can be added from the "Add a widget" button. In here you'll see a list of more widgets. Let's say you want to insert Google reviews, there's a widget for that. Maybe you want to have a menu there, there's another widget for that. And if you can't find an option to match your need, there's always the "Custom HTML widget".
The moment you select a widget, or delete an existing one, you can always reorder them. In the website preview on the right, you'll see the changes in real-time.
Now, in the example above you can see some other elements, social media icons, and a custom text. Those are not widgets. Those are some features supported by the page builder I'm using – Colibri.
Editing WordPress footers using widgets in the WordPress Dashboard
From the Dashboard, head over to "Appearance-> Widgets".
On the left, you'll find the list of available widgets.
On the right, you'll find the footer widget sections you need to fill in with the selected widgets.
Drag and drop the widgets you want, from the list on the left to one of the footer areas.
Widgets don't need lots of adjustments. You usually name them, click on "Save", then on "Done", and you're live.
Let's check our calendar:
What modifications can I make to the WordPress footer?
Now, as promised in the "Change footer content in the theme Customizer" chapter, I'll go more in-depth with the changes you can do to your footer. Customizers can differ from theme to theme, but the logic behind kinda stays. So, even if I'm using the SkylineWP theme, you'll be able to recognize the process I'm using in other Customizers.
Before getting into the details, I wanna point out some structural elements. Each website section goes inside of a block. there the "About us" block, the "Portfolio" block, etc. Blocks can have rows. Rows get split into columns. Inside columns and rows, you can add other smaller pieces of content called components, in the case of SkylineWP. Such components can be images, videos, lists, etc.
Now that this is clear (or so I hope), let's do some editing.
How to make changes to the footer layout?
Let's start by selecting the entire footer block. You'll see some editing options on the left-hand side. Select "Layout".
Here you can:
- adjust the width of your section. Do you want it to go from one screen side to the other, and occupy the whole width of a screen? Or just occupy the theme's default content width? Usually, for most of the sites, the header goes full width, and the rest of the content occupies a specific percent of the whole area available. This is also valid for the template I'm using as an example.
- adjust the height of the footer. Footer height is important to give enough negative space around footer elements, which will make them more visible, easier to read and therefore, more useful.
- adjust top and bottom spacing, meaning the distance from the content till the margins of the section,
- add a header,
- add new rows.
Our current footer has one row with multiple widgets. If you select the row, the menu on the right will give you the option to add new columns. So, as a rule, when rows are selected, columns can be added. When you select a block, you can add rows to it.
How to change colors and fonts in the footer?
Let's start with selecting text content in the footer, in the website preview. The moment you make the selection, the text editing options will be available in the Customizer's menu. Under the "Style" options, select "Text color" to make changes to colors.
If you want to change font-size, font-family, and font-weight, you can do this inside "Typography.
It's that easy!
From the "Content" option you can make changes to text alignment.
Now, if you want to make changes to the entire footer block text, not in specific footer sections, you can do this inside the "Advanced" settings.
If you want to make changes to the whole website typography, you can select "Edit theme defaults", under the "Advanced" settings. A second option would be going to the main menu, and select "Typography" under "General settings".
Here you can make typography adjustments to headings, body texts, links, and blockquotes.
How to change the footer background?
Start with selecting your entire footer block in the website preview. Next, head over to "Style".
You'll see several options there:
- change the background color
- add an image, video, or slideshow as the background
- add a gradient background
- add an overlay
Sounds easy so far?
Thought so.
The customizer is pretty intuitive.
This being said, we hope website footer editing no longer has many secrets for you. Observing some best practices and design principles, you should manage to customize your website footer the right way. What is more, you should thus have an additional chance to make visitors remember your website. And get back to it, in the future.
Now, if you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to design a WordPress website, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Alina Belascu
Alina is a digital marketer with a passion for web design. When she's not strategizing she's doing photography, listening to podcasts on history and psychology, and playing with her 2 dogs and cat.
How To Change Widget Theme
Source: https://colibriwp.com/blog/how-to-edit-footer-in-wordpress-with-4-easy-methods/
Posted by: duncanpinge1948.blogspot.com
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