Updating the Copyright
on Your Website
It’s a new year (goodbye 2020 and good riddance)! Now there is something very important you need to do on your website. Do you know what it is? It’s updating the copyright! The what? Yeah, I know but stick with me. Most people think the copyright on their website is a kind of set it and forget it kind of thing but it’s not. It’s a small thing that can make a surprisingly big impact.
I’m not going to try to go into the legal bits of copyrights and what is official and what isn’t and how you make sure you are covered. I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV (although I do love a good legal drama). The reason I pay attention to my clients’ copyright is that it’s all about appearances.
You see if I show up on a website and everything looks cool and I’m jiving along and I get to the bottom and see the copyright it a year or two (or more) old I’m going to assume that whoever is running the website hasn’t been around in a while and isn’t putting out new content. And what content is there is probably out of date. Then I’m going to bounce off and find some more recent info.
I know, it sounds silly, but I’m not the only person who feels this way. The copyright is a lot like errors on a blog post. It doesn’t necessarily mean the info is bad but it does mean that someone isn’t taking the time to check over it. Updating the copyright is a tiny thing that can help boost that “know, like, and trust” factor that marketers are always talking about.
Okay, if you are this far in I’m going to assume you are nodding your head and waiting for me to tell you how to update your copyright.
The good news is that it’s going to be a 30-second fix for you. (If it’s not please send me an email, I would love to take a look at your site and help you get it updated!)
Here’s what you do: log into your website. On the left-hand side click “Appearance”, under that click “Customize”. This is going to open all your site settings. You are going to find the one that says “Footer” (or copyright depending on your theme). Click on that, then you will either see a text box with your copyright info or some more options. If you see the text box hang out for a second while the rest of us catch up.
If you see the other options click on “Bottom Bar” and you should see the text box. Now everybody, find the spot in the text box that something like “Copyright” or “All Rights Reserved” and the year. Change whatever year is there to the current year (as of right now that would be 2021). Scroll back up to the top and click the “Publish” button. Congratulations! Your website copyright is now up to date!
Now that you have that done it’s a great time to check over your website and make sure everything is updated, backed up, and ready to help you rock this new year! You can learn about what needs an update and how over on this blog post.
