If you’ve ever wanted to change your website’s logo, update a phone number in the footer, or add a new link to your navigation menu — and ended up down a rabbit hole of theme options, widgets, and settings panels — this tutorial is for you.
WordPress 6.9’s Site Editor puts your header and footer directly in front of you, editable the same way you edit any other content on the site. No code, no theme files, no guesswork.
What the site editor actually is (and why it matters)
The Site Editor is WordPress’s full site editing tool. It lets you edit every part of your website — not just individual pages and posts, but the structural templates that wrap every page: your header, footer, sidebar, and page layouts.
The key distinction is between editing a page and editing a template. When you edit a page, you’re changing that one piece of content. When you edit a template in the Site Editor, you’re changing the layout that every page using that template inherits. Edit your footer template and it updates on every page of your site at once.
Before you proceed, check that your theme supports full site editing. Block themes — including Twenty Twenty-Five, Astra, GeneratePress, and Kadence — all support it. If you go to Appearance in your WordPress dashboard and see Editor rather than Customise, you’re using a block theme and you’re good to go.
Getting into the site editor
Go to Appearance → Editor. The first thing you’ll see is the Site Editor home screen, which gives you access to three main areas:
- Templates — the full-page layouts for things like your homepage, single posts, and WooCommerce product pages
- Patterns — reusable blocks of content, including your header and footer template parts
- Navigation — a dedicated editor for your site’s menu structure
Click on Patterns in the left-hand panel. You’ll see a section called Template Parts — this is where your header and footer live.
Editing your header
Click on Header under Template Parts. The header opens in the visual editor, exactly as it appears on your site. Click anywhere on it to start editing.
Changing your logo: Click on the logo image. In the block settings panel on the right, you’ll see an option to Replace the image — click it, choose your new logo file from the Media Library, and it drops straight in. Use the width slider in the same panel to adjust the logo size without stretching it.
Editing the navigation menu: Click on the Navigation block in your header. The block toolbar gives you options to add new pages, reorder existing links, and remove items you no longer need. Click the three-dot menu next to any link to rename it, change the URL, or delete it.
Adjusting header colours and background: Click on the outermost container of the header — usually a Group or Row block. In the right-hand panel under Styles, you can change the background colour, text colour, and padding.
When you’re done, click Save in the top right corner. You’ll see a prompt confirming which template parts are being saved — tick the box for Header and click Save again.
Editing your footer
Click Back to return to the Patterns screen, then click Footer under Template Parts.
Updating text directly: Click on any text element in the footer — your business name, address, phone number, copyright line — and edit it directly in the editor as you would in a word processor. There are no widgets or shortcodes involved.
Updating social links: If your theme includes a Social Icons block in the footer, click on it. Each icon is individually clickable — select one, and in the block settings on the right you can update the URL it links to.
Adding or removing columns: If your footer uses a Columns block, click on it and use the column count setting in the right-hand panel to adjust it. Content inside removed columns will need to be moved first, or it will be lost.
Working with patterns in your header and footer
Some themes build headers and footers using Patterns — pre-designed, reusable content blocks that can appear in multiple places on the site. If you see a banner saying the content is a synced pattern and you only want to edit this instance, click Detach before making changes.
If you’re not sure whether something is a synced pattern, look for the pattern icon (a small grid of squares) in the block toolbar. If it’s there, it’s synced.
Mistakes to avoid in the site editor
Editing the wrong template. If you’re editing and the header appears greyed out and unclickable, you’re in a page template — navigate back and open the Header template part directly from Patterns.
Saving without previewing. Always use the Preview button before saving. Template changes apply sitewide immediately on save.
Overwriting a synced pattern unintentionally. If your header or footer uses a synced pattern, editing and saving it will update every instance of that pattern across the site.
What to do if something goes wrong
The Site Editor saves revision history for template parts. If you make a change and something looks wrong after saving, go back into the Header or Footer template part, click the Revisions option (the clock icon in the top toolbar), and step back through previous saved versions.
For more significant problems, a proper backup plugin like UpdraftPlus makes it straightforward to restore to a known good state. Taking a backup before editing templates is always worth the few minutes it takes.
Get in touch with us, our team is here to help.
