When I see a footer with “Copyright 2008,” I immediately wonder, did this company go out of business? Is this information current? Even if that company is still in business, I wonder if I can trust a company that can’t keep it’s website up to date. Fortunately, it is really easy to have your website automatically display the current year.
Keep your WordPress footer up to date with one line of code
For any PHP site, which is the language WordPress is written in, use this simple bit of code: <?php echo date('Y'); ?>. This will ask the server to print out the current year wherever you place this code. Could it be any simpler?
Where to put the code
That depends on your theme. In most themes, you can simply go to Appearance -> Editor. There you should see a file called footer.php. Find the line of code that says “Copyright….” and in place of the year, use <?php echo date('Y'); ?>.
If you use the Genesis Framework, install the Simple Hooks plugin and put the code in the genesis_footer hook. Then make sure that the Unhook genesis_do_footer() function from this hook and Execute PHP on this hook boxes are checked. It is that easy!
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