You may be looking to change copyright year in WordPress, which is visible in the footer area. The copyright text usually has the copyright symbol followed by the current year, or the year span the website has been active. Keep reading along to find out how to change this text to the current year.
Change Copyright Year in WordPress
Updating the copyright year is an important task that many webmasters forget to do. Even some popular websites have outdated copyright years, simply because they forget to update the date.
This is why we will be showing you how to automatically update copyright year in WordPress.
TEXT AD1This way you don’t have to worry about displaying an outdated copyright date after having forgotten to update it.
There are two different methods that you can use to have the date automatically updated.
The first method involves adding a piece of code to your theme. If you are not comfortable with adding codes, then you can follow the plugin approach in the second method.
Method #1: Update Copyright Year Using Code
By adding a PHP code to your website, you can have the copyright date automatically change every year.
Note: Please take a backup before proceeding with the steps below, in case you end up accidentally putting the PHP code in the wrong place.
1. In WordPress, click on Appearance > Theme Editor
2. Select your current theme and then click on Theme Footer (footer.php) from the right menu.
3. Add the following PHP code:
© <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> Name
In place of Name you need to enter the name of your website.
TEXT AD2This php code will display a simple copyright message with the current year like the one below.
If you would instead like to display a copyright message with the date range (from when your website started to the current year) then add this php code instead.
© startyear-<?php echo date(“Y”); ?> Name
Replace startyear with the year your website was started and Name with your website’s name. This code will display a copyright message similar to the one in the image below.
4. Click on Update File to save the changes
Method #2: Update Copyright Year Using a Plugin
The second approach is perfect for beginners and people who don’t like dealing with code.
A great plugin that can help you automatically change the copyright year is called Automatic Copyright Year.