How To Update Your © Copyright Year on Your Website

If you regularly add new content or edit the existing content, you should probably update the year in your copyright notice at the beginning of each new year.

While you’re at it…

I highly recommend updating (or adding to) your footer area with any or all of these:

• Copyright Notice
• Links to your policies
• Your contact details
• Your Location (address, city and state or just city and state)
• A Location map (if you are a physical business)
• Social media links
• A newsletter sign-up box
• Links to pages that are not in the main navigation

Quick Fix: How to change the copyright year in your website’s footer

Option 1: Update the copyright year in your footer via your theme customizer

To go this route, simply follow the these directions:

• Log into your WordPress dashboard
• Go to the side admin panel and click on Appearance
• Click Customize
• This will take you to a new editing page. Find and click Footer
• Click Footer Layout
• Replace the year with the shortcode: [ fl_year ]
  • Important: When copying and pasting the above shortcode, be sure to remove the space before ] and after [ for it to work correctly.

Option 2: Update the copyright year in your footer via your Theme Layout

If you’ve purchased your theme and have all the files available on your admin panel in WordPress, then you can follow these directions:

• Log into your WordPress dashboard
• Go to your site’s theme > Theme Layouts
• Click Footer template or Footer file
• Click the footer file
• Replace the year with the shortcode: [ fl_year ]
  • Important: When copying and pasting the above shortcode, be sure to remove the space before ] and after [ for it to work correctly.

Option 3: Update the year in your footer via your Footer Menu

If the year is housed in your footer menu widget, you can update it this way:

• Log into your WordPress dashboard
• Go to Appearance > Menu
• Select your Footer Menu from the dropdown
• In the appropriate page, replace the year with the shortcode: [ fl_year ]
  • Important: When copying and pasting the above shortcode, be sure to remove the space before ] and after [ for it to work correctly.

How to AUTOMATICALLY Update Your Copyright Year on Your Website

Copy & paste:

<script type="text/javascript">
  document.write(new Date().getFullYear());
</script>

Copy & paste:

&copy; 2010<script>new Date().getFullYear()>2010&&document.write("-"+new Date().getFullYear());</script>, Company.

Copy & paste:

<?php echo date("Y"); ?>

Copy & paste:

&copy; <?php
  $fromYear = 2008;
  $thisYear = (int)date('Y');
  echo $fromYear . (($fromYear != $thisYear) ? '-' . $thisYear : '');?> Company.