Edit WordPress Footer Credits Using The Genesis Child Theme

Last updated on November 29th, 2018 at 11:06 am

So you’ve started a new blog on Genesis, but you can’t change those darn footer credits..

In this tutorial I am going to walk-through with you on how to edit WordPress footer credits using the Genesis Child theme.

Why You Should Edit The WordPress Footer Credits

It’s important to make your blog look as professional as possible. When people come to your blog, you want to make it as friendly and inviting as possible.

This is one of the reasons it’s important to pay attention to small details such as creating a gravatar and uploading a favicon to your blog.

Your footer credits should clearly state your Copyright information for your blog.

This is how the default footer credits look like on the Centric Pro child theme.

The last thing you want to do is use the default out-of-the-box copyright. Instead, you want to add your own copyright to your footer.

Let’s get started…

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I am going to show you 2 different methods you can use to edit your WordPress footer credits. One will require you to add a plugin to your blog. On the second method, we’ll be adding some code to our functions.php file to get the job done.

Related: Style Your WordPress Footer Widgets On Genesis

Watch Over My Shoulder As I Edit My WordPress Footer Credits On Genesis

I’ve created a video in case you’d rather watch me do this live. I realize that some of you would rather watch a video that follow my step-by-step tutorials.

It doesn’t matter which method you choose to use. The important thing is that you change out the default copyright on your blog.

Option 1: Using Genesis Custom Footer Plugin

Log into your WordPress blog and head on over to the plugins section. We are going to be installing a plugin called Genesis Custom Footer. If this is your first time installing a plugin, I’ve written a great tutorial that will help you understand how to work with them.

Here is an image of what the plugin looks like on the plugins install dashboard.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin you want to head on over to Genesis >> Theme Settings

Scroll down until you see the box that says Genesis Custom Footer.

You can use any of the existing Genesis shortcodes or you can use HTML to create an awesome looking copyright for your blog.

If you need any help using the plugin, you can contact the developer.

This is how my footer looks like with the new plugin.

Once you get your copyright text changed, you may want to consider adding some styles to it. I was able to edit the footer without any hiccups and this was my first time using it.

On my personal blog, I chose to customize my footer copyright using code. The great thing is that it really doesn’t matter if you don’t know PHP, you can always find help online regarding the Genesis Framework.

Option 2: Using Code to Edit Your WordPress Footer

For this option, you will need to access your WordPress files via your FTP client. I highly suggest setting up your blog on local host so you can test out your code. I love using Desktop Server to help me play around with WordPress. Adding the wrong code to your functions.php site can bring down your site in a flash.

If you don’t feel comfortable using this method, I highly suggest you stick with the first method.

Once you’re in your child theme folder, open up your functions.php file.

We will be adding this code to our footer. I am not a true PHP developer, but I can find code online and get what I need accomplished. If you’re looking for some code to add to your footer, check out this site.

Add the code to the bottom of your functions.php file. Save the file and refresh your page, you should now see your new footer for your site.

This is what my code looks like on my site.

I am a big fan of trying to do a lot of things without a plugin, whenever possible.

Here’s what my footer looks like with my footer text changed.

As you can see, it looks totally different than the footer I created in the first method. I’ve used CSS to style my footer the way that I want.

This tutorial does not go over how to style your footer credits. I just wanted to walk you through the process of how to change your footer credits.

Final Take Away

I’ve tried to make this tutorial as easy as possible to follow. As I mentioned, I am not a PHP developer, so please don’t ask me questions regarding PHP. I just find code online and am able to get what I want to be accomplished and share it with you.

That’s one of the great things about using WordPress. So many people are willing to share their code. While I don’t recommend testing code out on your live blog. I do however recommend setting up a testing site on your localhost.

If you need PHP help for your Genesis child theme, I suggest you visit the Genesis forums. They will be able to get your questions answered.

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Don’t forget to let me know if you were able to edit your WordPress footer credits. Which method did you use? Did you find it difficult to do or did you blaze through it?