HOW TO: Update Your Site Year Automatically
How to
Auto-Update Your Site Copyright
Here's a round up of the best (and simplest) ways to auto-update your site’s copyright year so you never have to do it again. Whether you’re on Squarespace, Wordpress or Wix, with just a bit of code you can cross this task off your to do list for good!
I’m all about working smarter, not harder. That’s why when I run across a simple way to un-complicate your communications, I gotta share it. My world is websites and the start of a new year means not only updating all my client agreements but also my site copyright (often found in your site footer). See, we include a copyright date on every site we design showing when the work was first created to protect the design and all the content from being used without your permission or attribution.
What is a copyright date?
What is a copyright date and why does your site need it? To answer this one, I’d like to introduce you to one of our studio’s favorite business follows, the Legal Paige. Built on Shopify, the Legal Paige is a fantastic legal resource for small businesses with tons of templates to make your business legally legit. The way they define copyright is:
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. A Copyright has to be (1) original, (2) creative, (3) in a tangible medium, (4) have authorship, and (5) be in use. A Copyright does not have to be registered to be protected. For instance, when a camera clicks, the photograph that was just taken is considered a copyrightable work of art. One of the unique things about a copyrighted work is that you can use the copyright symbol, a Copyright (©), and attach it to a work of original authorship such as writing, artwork, photographs, and many other mediums. A copyright lasts for the life of the author, plus 75 years. Material that doesn't have an author retains the copyright for 95 years from publishing or 120 years after creation, whichever is shorter.
THE PROBLEM
Typically, we create a new © Date for our sites because there are substantial changes made to both the content and design. The problem is the year after we launch a site. Should site owners change the date each year? Should they leave the date as is? Out of the billions of websites online today, you’ll see Fortune 500 companies like Apple use just the current year, while Home Depot opts for a range. We recommend a date range starting with site origination year through the current year, like, ©2012 - 2024. Here’s why.
Inspires Confidence
An origination date that’s not the current year, whether 2012 or 1989 can inadvertently make your site, and you, appear outdated or painfully behind. Instead, we want any date in the past to inspire confidence and convey expertise by showing it alongside the current year.
Build Trust
Conversely, the current year shown alone can make a less established business seem like the new kid on the block. To build trust, we want the current date to show your site is actively maintained and the viewer can expect you’ll do whatever the site is claiming whether that be honor a refund, answer a message, or ship a product.
Whether you opt for a range or just the current year, its easy to forget to update such a small piece of your site. For example, one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the WORLD still hasn’t updated theirs as of today, January 28th. We’ll reveal who at the end of this post, but if they can forget, so can you. With just a bit of code magic, though, we can move this manual task off your start-of-the-year check list for good. Here’s a round up of the best (and simplest) solutions for the top 3 platforms we design sites on. Even though it requires code, when its so easy to implement, we say just do it!
Here’s how to auto-update your site copyright year with just a bit of code for Squarespace, Wordpress and Wix.
Squarespace
One of my favorite Squarespace gurus is Chris of schwartz-edmisten.com. His tutorial is all you’ll need to get your Squarespace site up-to-date.
Step OnE —
Copy Chris’ code listed here.
Step two —
Open your code injection section (go to Website tab in your dashboard, then select ‘Website tools’ all the way at the bottom, and ‘Code Injection’ to paste the code in the ‘footer section.’ Paste the code from step one and save.
Step three —
Open your footer and hyperlink the text where you’d like the date to appear with a link #[date] and you’re done.
Wix
Wix is our most techy platform to update, but it’s super similar to squarespace. Basically, you have to add code using the wix dev mode and target a specific text box to display it on your site. Follow along below and I promise it’s just as easy. Check out his full tutorial here.
Step OnE —
Add a “new” text box to your footer with nothing but “footer copyright” in it. Don’t worry, this text will be replaced with what’s in the code so it’s just to help you see where the date will go. Copy the code from this tutorial.
Step two —
From the top toolbar in your site’s Wix Editor, select and turn on Dev Mode (Vello). A window will open at the bottom of the screen where you can paste the code.
Step three —
To make this code work, you have to find the ID of the new text box from step one (see video) and replace the words between the ‘‘ ('#footerCopyright') with the specific ID from your site. This will replace the words “footer copyright” with what’s in the code in your Preview/Publish view.
I like to do my text a bit differently than the video and will typically use this instead:
$w('#ID').text = `©establish date - ${year} Brand Name | All Rights Reserved.
Just replace the bold text with your own information and you’re all set!
Wordpress
Wordpress is even simpler using what’s called ‘shortcodes’. Most (if not all) SiteSmith Studio Wordpress sites are built using Beaver Themer making it the simplest platform in our list to auto-update your copyright date. All you have to do is create a text box in your footer and add this text, [fl_year], where you’d like the date to appear. Literally, that’s it. If you want a date range, simply put your © establish date - [fl_year] and you’re good to go. Save/Publish your footer and refresh the page to changes take affect. If that doesn’t work, chances are you’re not using beaver themer. That’s ok! Try one of the other solutions in the full tutorial here.
Did you catch our hint for which brand is the one with the outdated copyright year? The award goes to Nike, one of our studio’s most inspirational brands by far and a personal favorite when it comes to fitness apparel. While we hate to throw shade on such a great business, we hope it only encourages you to push past your coding fears and get your site up-to-date once and for all!