Add Link To A Custom WordPress Footer

One of the easiest ways to customize WordPress is to add links to the footer of the themes template. You could add the link to any website you want and if your blog is part of your website adding a link to the homepage of your site will help your search engine rankings as well. This is a little WordPress Guide that will help interlink your website.

First make sure you can edit your theme’s footer.php file by making in writable in your hosting account. Login to your hosting account, browse to your blogs folder, the wp-content folder and then the themes folder. Look for your current theme and open that folder. Change the file permissions to at least the footer.php file to 777 or 666.

Login to your blog, click Presentation, then Theme Editor, look for the Footer file on the right and click it to open it in the editor. First copy all the content in this file and save it as a text file in Notepad on your computer. That way if you mess things up you can just paste the original code back in to start over.

Now look for the links that are already in place, for the default theme that will look like this:

<?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?> is proudly powered by
<a href=”http://wordpress.org/”>WordPress</a>

We want to add a link right after this code, Place your mouse right after the original code and hit the space bar once and add your new link code. Or you could just copy the original code and paste it right after it and then edit the URL, the anchor text and even place some text in front of it like this:

<a href=”http://wordpress.org/”>WordPress</a> More Optional Text <a href=”http://YourWebsite.com”>Anchor Text</a>

Now Click Update File, open your site and marvel at your handy work!

If you are using a free theme that someone wrote and it has a link to their website in it please leave the link intact. After all that is a small price to pay for what they have provided you.

This post and the below video are almost two years old but you should still get the gist of how to accomplish this.

Sorry but I will not address your questions about specific issues regarding your theme.

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Comments

Thanks for the excellent tutorial. I gave it a thumbs up at Bumbzee and I digg it. :)

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[...] package for that matter. Once inserted, it will be "global". Maybe this link will help? Add Link To A Custom WordPress Footer Cheers, KiDQUiCK __________________ KiDQUiCK Web Development & SEO Consulting Life is not a [...]

Thank you for a clear and easy-to-follow explanation!

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Thanks for the excellent tutorial.

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Thank you so much. I have been wondering how to do this. I am still searching for a way to add stuff like mybloglog and such to the footer of the page instead of on my sidebar, any tips?

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Gene, you could probably add the script or code or anything directly into the footer.php file.

However you may need to resize the footer area to accommodate the size of the items you want to place in it. And also format the items you add to be in the position you want.

Theme modifications like this are hard to explain in a post let alone a comment because of all the different themes and how they are coded.

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Thanks for the excellent tutorial.

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Thank’s I never could do this before

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Thanks

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Great Tutorial! Even a newbie could follow!

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my footer code looks like this… how do I change it?

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Hello, Thank you for great tutorial.. I have a question..

I want the ‘title’ of each single post to appear in the page’s footer.

For this, i pasted the code:

” rel=”bookmark” title=”">

in the footer..

The following happens: I get a link to my sixth post (in every footer).

The same code is present for the (title) and just before the comments block – but it works fine there.

I am unable to find/solve the problem – could you please help me out.

Thanks & Regards.

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I Pasted this code:

(it did not appear correct in the earlier message above).

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The reason you can’t find any info about putting the title of the post in the footer is because it is probably very difficult to do.

You would have to set it up for different “What If” situations. Remember this one footer.php file is used an all pages and posts on the blog so what if it is a page with multiple posts on it. There is more code needed to make this work the way you want, of which I don’t know I suggest looking at http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page.

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The post was very informative, but the video made it so much easier to learn. Thanks!

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This information is useful. My blog is very difficult to customize fully as it is in xml. If anyone knows any resources on editing pages in xml code I would love to hear from you.

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great video and post!!! Thanks!

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Good video….i like it

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Although this is very basic thing which we should know but is it allowed to delete wordpress link at the footer and to include our own? Isn’t counted as illegal thing?

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Jeff  Replied:

Roger you could remove the link to WordPress.org but should keep any links to themes author intact on the footer of a free WordPress theme. Keeping the authors links is considered the price of using the theme.

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I have been reading some snippet on SEO and came to know that we should place our links and keywords in proper structure i.e something on header and footer etc. I was looking for updating footer in wordpress and here your handy blog is on my screen. Thanks for sharing. It is good to read actual post and comments here.

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You would have to set it up for different “What If” situations. Remember this one footer.php file is used an all pages and posts on the blog so what if it is a page with multiple posts on it. There is more code needed to make this work the way you want, of which I don’t know

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Thanks for great post! It really made it easy and quick to learn! Just in time for me! Cheers

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Great tutorial. I think this is great for SEO too. Big G is starting to recognize links down the side and not pay much attention to them anymore. Footer links can be an asset to SEO. Thanks again! Dan

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This is great. Nicely explained. Just the thing I was looking for. Wanted to add link to my footer too. Thanks for sharing the information. This is very useful.

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@Boston web design, Are you sure? Do these footer links help in SEO? How can we use them to support SEO? I’ll be very grateful if you can send me information on this.

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Hi
What a great info. I think that footer is hard to be edited. However,It is not hard anymore after I read this post.
Have a nice blogging.

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Its really clear and to the point explanation. Really good for beginner to understand it. Thanks for sharing.

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Nice post. One of the best tutorials I’ve seen lately. Your explanation is very good. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Keep up the good work.

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Naruto Manga Spoilers  Replied:

I think this is great for SEO too. Big G is starting to recognize links down the side and not pay much attention to them anymore. Footer links can be an asset to SEO.

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I really want to add a footer on my wordpress blog. thank you very much for this!

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Is it possible that the placement of footer links be part of the option of WP? Is there any plug-in to do this thing? or shall we stick on footer.php editing methods?

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Jeff  Replied:

The footer links are theme specific so no way to control them from within the WP dashboard, unless the specific themes footer was “widgetized” like a sidebar.

I know of no plugins but really editing the theme is not really that hard and how often does it need done anyway?

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Nice information. I am about to relaunch my site with blog and forums and I think it is a cool way to interlink them.

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Thanks for sharing the post because I forgot the exact place where I should edit it. There are many files in the theme and I was checking others.

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I am about to relaunch my site with blog and forums and I think it is a cool way to interlink them.

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great tutorial, now i know a little bit more about worldpress, cool

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Great tutorial, reading your blogs has made wordpress easy to manage for me, earlier it was like hell to manage my blog.

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Jeff, Thanks for the excellent tutorial!

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does this violate any trademarks of the original theme owner?

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Jeff  Replied:

Depends on the particular theme, but usually adding to a footer is an acceptable practice as long as you keep the original links intact.

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thanks . How Can I add links in wordpress footer encrypted?

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Thanks, this was a great commentary, I am always looking for better ways to improve my WP blogs.

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I thought that footer is hard to be edited, but now clear explanation mades it easy to learn!
Thank you for great tutoria!

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Thanks man that is super easy to do.

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Hello Jeff,
Thanks for your informative video.
I would like to add a right-justified “Disclaimer” link to my footer.php, that would open up a dialog box with the disclaimer’s content. What would be the HTML code to do this?

Thanks.

Helen

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Jeff  Replied:

Sorry I am not sure how to do that. I suggest to Google pop up HTML code. The code doesn’t need to be WordPress specific as any HTML that does it should work.

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Okay. Thanks.

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Thank you, thank you… Jeff. This has been most helpful. I don’t usually have such a problem with the technical stuff, but I have spent over a week of way too many hours trying to figure this out. What you did differently is explain WHERE EXACTLY to write the new URL in the footer.php. That little tidbit helps me to move on to the next thing I want to do to make a better blog. I will search your site first in the future.
Thank again,
Mette

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This is very helpful. WordPress can be such a handful, so having a step by step process is extremely helpful and convenient.

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This is really a very useful post especially to the newbies. Thanks for sharing!

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Thank You Jeff, for the wonderful and simple step-by-step guide and the video. I have been looking for something like this for our Dedicated Servers site.

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Great tip loved the video will ad a link to my blog later today – cheers

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Simple but helpful tip, Jeff. And the presentation is always clear and precise. Have learned a lot of wordpress tricks from your blog. Thanks a lot.

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I appreciate the comprehensive walkthrough even though its not working for me i’m thankful for the other things i was able to pull from it.

-C

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Thanks for the information. I always knew about the footer.php file edit, but was not able to change it because of the file permissions you mentioned after reading this I changed my footer comfortably.

Thanks once more

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Nice post.

Now i have a quesation :)

Is better to have a link in the footer and then all pages of the site or is it better to have a single link on a page?

Thanks in advantage for your reply.

Excuse me for my english. I am italian.

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Jeff  Replied:

I think the more the better.

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Thanks for the heads up on this. I am implementing it as we speak. Well as soon as I log off here

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Whilst you’re digging around in that thar footer file, you might want to change the “xxxx is proudly powered by wordpress” to something like “xxx runs on the awesome wordpress platform”

That “powered by wordpress” line is what most spammers use top find your blog, without it there, you’ll find your spam rate drops dramatically.

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I see.., that’s why i can’t update the footer file. Thanks a bunch!

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Very well written. WordPress as a CMS has become much more than a blogging platform. The open source community format with sites like this make this software very versatile.

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I was happy when I found this as it was exactly what I wanted to do…. and then was even happier that you created a video tutorial! You should post this on eHow.

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I’ve learned quite a bit about working with WP over the last two years and I’ve just added this to my arsenal. I have a handful of sites, and must admit I go for templates that have as many built in seo features as possble (makes it easier in the long run), including great-looking and highly functional ones with footers which can include the tip you have given all of us. Thanks.

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Really good tutorial video I gooing to make this link on all my blog wordpress, thank’s a lot for info !

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Nice little guide, it’s really pretty easy and straight forward to modify things like this in WordPress, which is why I agree with you about the people who don’t take what they’ve learned here and apply it / modify it in order to get it to work on their specific theme or situation. Most WordPress themes use a footer file or have a way to edit it, and if they don’t, you could FTP into your site and the file is clearly labeled. So anyone who takes the time – like 10 minutes max, probably – should be able to figure it out. -Josh

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I’ve been working with WP for a while but enjoyed your clear tutorial. Thanks

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I spent a great deal on the footer before I found this competent tutorial. but i also like to add “www” within the href link

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Most WordPress themes use a footer file or have a way to edit it, and if they don’t, you could FTP into your site and the file is clearly labeled. So anyone who takes the time – like 10 minutes max, probably – should be able to figure it out

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Thanks a lot, I’ve just built a blog with wordpress,and I even don’t know how to insert a new theme!!?

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Thanks Jeff,
I’m just starting out with my first local WP installation for an article blog and I have to say so far I’m very pleased: It’s a great system not just for newbies but for anyone who quickly wants to get some self-published stuff online.

I don’t like HTML coding but I enjoy PHP – so I’m looking forward to many customizations of my WP installation 8-).

Thanks again.

Greetings,
Georg

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I am about to relaunch my site with blog and forums and I think it is a cool way to interlink them.

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Thanks for this , the video really helps. I have been looking for tips on how to do this for a while now.

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I’ve been looking for a way to do this. Thanks for breaking the process down for us.

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Wordpress is getting more and more customized with each passing day, and this is the reason why I like the wordpress and prefer it over the blogger, thanks for sharing the footer plugin!

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I’ve heard that search engines seem to look more at the header than the footer in determining what weight to give the link. It’s only speculation, but if you want to edit that file instead of the footer, look in your theme folder for “header.php”.

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Jeff  Replied:

The post doesn’t mention a thing about SEO or search engines, it has absolutely nothing to do with it. It is simply a way to edit the footer of most WP themes and nothing more.

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Provo Chiropractor  Replied:

In the first paragraph you mentioned that putting a link in the footer of your site will help your search engine rankings. I was commenting on the recent rumors that putting a link in the header may be worth slightly more (especially if you were helping a friend by linking to them).

Also, I’m really glad to see that your blog is actively replying to visitor’s comments. I’m sure many people find it very useful when questions are asked about the main post.

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wow thanks ive just started using wordpress and for this usefull.

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Jeff  Replied:

Glad you found it useful for that Blogspot.com blog you left that I removed the link from. Try spamming another blog “Gamer”

You might want to try a little harder when blog spamming for links and I might suggest using proper punctuation too.

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Thanks for the tip on how to add a link to a custom WP footer.
Would this trick work for any WP themes?

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Jeff  Replied:

The time you took to ask me the question could have been used to try for yourself on your theme.

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Thanks a lot for the tutorial. I watched your video and added some links in my blog footer. I don’t have PHP knowledge but I did it easily.

Have a Great Time :-)

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Good to see a “SIMPLE” instructional method of achieving these footer links, i first thought you needed a plugin or a premium theme to manage footer links.. ive now got some work to do lol, ive got 3 different blogs so you have made my boring day much more fun now.

Cheers

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Theme modifications like this are hard to explain in a post let alone a comment because of all the different themes and how they are coded.

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Does this runs site wide or footer is only on per page?

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Jeff  Replied:

Sorry I didn’t mention it but most themes show the footer.php file, which this guide is about, on all pages/posts.

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Unfortunately this is also how you can delete links from the footer and many people who download a theme remove links from the footer to delete credits(baclinks) to the designer. Happened to me :(

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Jeff  Replied:

I addressed that issue in the post telling them to leave the theme’s author link intact.

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Some themes are using encoded footer, I found it is quiet difficult to decode. Your post will definitely useful in this kind of situations. Thanks a lot for sharing.

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I forgot the exact place where I should edit it. There are many files in the theme and I was checking others. Thanks for the nice sharing.

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Great tutorial. I it was so easy to understand with the attached video. Thanks for all the great ideas you gave me.

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Very informative post, I have used code like this before to customize my wordpress themes. It is good for interlinking to other sites using the correct anchor texts is a plus also. Long live WordPress

Thanks for this

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The theme that I’m using already puts a link to my site in the footer. I just deleted the powered by wordpress thing and that was it.

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I have spent over a week of way too many hours trying to figure this out. What you did differently is explain WHERE EXACTLY to write the new URL in the footer.php.

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Right on time, i was about to edit my header and footer.
Thanks for this one. Hope i don’t have problem fixing it.

Cheers.

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I am not good in customizing the WP blog I don’t know why but I found it a bit difficult.
But in your post you make your point very clear and that’s why I got the thing…thanks a lot.

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There is so much you can do with your footer that nobody even thinks about doing. Why not make it look just as good as the rest of the site. People do look down there believe it or not

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Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your sharing. I have performed this excellent recipe like your suggestion. I hope it will give a good point at view of search engine.

Regards,

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I am just beginning to work in Word Press, so thanks for the easy to follow tutorial. I think Word Press is one of the best CMS’s out there – it’s very dynamic.

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Very innovative! thanks for sharing the tips which will prove to be very helpful in future as well…

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I have spent over a week of way too many hours trying to figure this out. What you did differently is explain WHERE EXACTLY to write the new URL in the footer.php.

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I always seem to use templates with the footer code encrypted, which makes it a little more difficult to add/remove links, but thanks for the helpful how-to guide..

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Good info! Just what I needed to go in and tweak a few thinks. Thank you!

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Just thought id say thanks ive been struggling with this and your guide was really useful

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I heard footer links are not too effective in terms of SEO

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Jeff  Replied:

No not the best but it can’t hurt either.

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Dentist Provo  Replied:

Like Jeff said, it’s not as good as a prominent H1 link front and center of every page on the domain, but, it’s better than no link. Does anyone know if getting a “no follow” link is better than getting no link or are they pretty much the same thing?

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Hi,

I also have done this, put one or two links at footer link to my home page. Even not the big deal, it’s still better than no link at all.
Thanks for your sharing this,

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Wow, these comment posting dates cover before and after the date of the post. The post says it was made on March 4th 2010, but the comments date back to 2007 and further as in 2011?

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Thanks a lot for this other tutorial!
I didn’t know how to change the permissions for a specific files.

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Yes, I agree with you. footer link to your website in your blog will help to get the back link to your website. I have added my website link to my wordpress blog footer. Thanks for this informative article.

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Theme modifications like this are hard to explain in a post let alone a comment because of all the different themes and how they are coded.

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Great tutorial. I think this is very good for SEO too. Big G starts to recognize the links on the side and does not lend much more. Footer links can be an asset for positioning. Thanks again! Dan

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Very well said. Your such a big help for beginners who wants to learn the basic functionality of WordPress. Footers is one my favorite changes to do where I can link it to my other blog pages. Thanks. ;-)

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Thank you for the tip! I’m currently setting up a WordPress CMS with a WOO Themes, and need to remove their link out of the footer and put something more suited to my cause in there. Now I now how to do it, and am very grateful for this oldie but goodie tip.

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Even though I have been a user of wordpress for awhile I am definitely not a coder by any means, I have actually managed to completely mess a theme up before trying to do things…I always save what I am working on before I do anything though, so that helps out A LOT. I also usually try to find a plugin that will do what I want before trying to mess with any code, but this seems pretty harmless. I was actually thinking interlinking some of my sites with footer links, I think I will give it a shot.

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Very good video tutorial with detailed information. This will help for interlinking website and maintaining search engine rankings.

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Good to see a “SIMPLE” instructional method of achieving these footer links, i first thought you needed a plugin or a premium theme to manage footer links.. ive now got some work to do lol, ive got 3 different blogs so you have made my boring day much more fun now.

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I have been using wordpress from so many days but I never thought to edit the Footer link. I thought it will be a difficult task. Now I can do it easily. Thank you for the tutorial.

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I will use this tutorial in my wordpress website. Nice tutorial. Will help me a lot. Thankx!

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Will use this video to refer mates on this very question, as I belong to a forum where a lot of newbies frequent.

Cheers,
Lane

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Well done Jeff, step by step guidance. I appreciate your efforts.

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Woah, are you commenting from the future?

Thanks for the help anyway, much appreciated!

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Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your sharing. I have performed this excellent recipe like your suggestion.

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Awesome post buddy. Fully agree with you here. Footer link to your website in your blog will help to get the back link to your website. I have added my website link to my WordPress blog footer. Thanks for this informative article.

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Thanks for sharing.But some themes allowes you to simply add a link with its settings.

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This is an awesome tip that most of us tend to miss. I’ve actually read about this before though…just never got around to implementing it on my sites. Thanks for the reminder. :)

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Making links at the bottom of your site really looks cool, I think I saw this in the trulia website looks very professional SEO work.

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Great tip and I really like to learn by examples. Your posts that show the code solution in WP for a specific problem really helps me learn to be a better webmaster.

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Hi,
My client wants me to put my additional pages in the footer. He wants to use the menu tab on top for his own pages. So how do you put a “page” link on the footer that still corresponds to the categories that I have made to the classic pages.

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Jeff  Replied:

Pay me to do it.

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Hai Jeff, Your Video give me detailed what must be do for change or custom of wordpress footer, I’ll try it. Thanks

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Good info as always… Video is the way to teach! Thanks Jeff…

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This is very helpful. WordPress can be such a handful, so having a step by step process is extremely helpful and convenient.

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Nice information. I am about to relaunch my site with blog and forums and I think it is a cool way to interlink them. :)

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Thanks, I was undergoing some problems in implementing this . But your Post helped me a lot than any other posts to recover my problem.

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And also format the items you add to be in the position you want.

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Please don’t cop an attitude with me if your theme can’t be modified or if it has no footer file. Nothing is worse than trying to provide free useful information and getting bitched at when it isn’t exactly what some are looking for. Or if you are too stupid to use what you can here and move on to solve your own problems. Gosh I just hate the way some people think they are “owed” everything.

I will not answer any theme specific questions especially from rude people asking about their Artisteer theme, whose comments will just be deleted.

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Leave a comment
Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.

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