04/101 Have you updated the copyright year in your footer?

It is the smallest line on the page, tucked at the very bottom, and the one almost nobody checks: the little copyright line in the footer of your website. Yet a visitor who spots a stale 2021 on a site they may buy from in 2026 quietly wonders whether anyone still runs the place.

This is the fourth tip in the 101 Quick Wix Tips series, and a quick one. In this blog post we look at what that copyright notice means, why it is worth keeping current, and three ways to update it on your Wix website, including a dynamic year that looks after itself.

What the copyright year in your footer means

A copyright notice is a short statement that you own the content you publish. The usual format is the © symbol, a year and the name of the person or business behind the site, as in © 2026 Smoogles Design. It sits at the very bottom because that area is repeated on every page.

The year is the part people misread. It need not match the day you first published, and it is not a legal expiry point: your work is protected either way. It simply marks the period your content covers, so a current year tells visitors the site is live and looked after.

Some sites show a range, such as 2019 to 2026, to mark first publication through to today. Either style works. What matters is that the last figure keeps pace with the calendar instead of drifting out of date.

Why an up-to-date copyright notice matters

First impressions count. An old copyright line is a small crack in otherwise tidy work. Visitors use it, often without thinking, to judge whether a company is still active, and a tired footer can cost trust before anyone reads a word.

It also feeds into SEO. Search engines favour pages that are looked after, and while one date alone will not lift your rankings, a stale footer beside ageing content suggests nobody is home. The small details are part of maintaining the whole thing.

And it is simply tidy. A correct website copyright line carries the same care you give the rest of your work, which is the impression that area should leave.

How to update your footer copyright in Wix: a step guide

Here is the manual method in the Wix Editor. It takes about a minute, and is the right approach if you are happy to make a note each January.

Open your site in the Wix Editor and scroll to the footer. Click it to select it, then click the text element holding the copyright line so you can edit it directly.

Change the year to the current one, for example swapping 2025 for 2026, and check the rest of the line while you are there, including your company name. Click Publish so the change goes live across every page.

Set up a dynamic copyright year with code

If remembering a yearly edit sounds like a chore, letting code handle it is the better answer. With a few lines, the footer pulls the figure from the browser and always shows the right one.

In the Wix Editor, turn on Dev Mode to enable Velo, the built-in coding tool. Select that text element and note the element ID shown on the right, renaming it to something clear such as copyrightText.

Open the masterPage.js file, which runs site-wide, and add the code below, swapping in your own element ID and company name:

$w.onReady(function () { const year = new Date().getFullYear(); $w('#copyrightText').text = '(c) ' + year + ' Your Company Name. All rights reserved.'; });

Publish the changes. From now on the line updates itself: it stays correct on its own, and you never touch it again.

Copyright notice best practices

Keep the wording simple. Something like © 2026 Your Company Name, all rights reserved covers what most small websites need: the symbol, the owner and a clear ownership claim.

Use your real legal or trading name rather than a nickname, so the notice points to whoever truly owns the content and holds the copyright to it.

Treat that area as a whole, too. While you update the year, check the links, the contact details, the copy and any policy pages, because that strip does quiet work on every page.

Common questions answered

How do I write copyright in a website footer? Use the © symbol, the current year and your company name, as in © 2026 Your Company Name. Adding all rights reserved is optional but common.

What is the copyright date at the bottom of a website? It is the year your content is claimed under. A single date or a range both work; what matters is that it reaches the present day.

Should the copyright year be updated on a website? Yes. It is not a legal requirement, but an outdated line makes a page look neglected, so it is worth refreshing it annually or automating it.

What is the copyright symbol in the footer of a website? It is the © character. On Windows you can type it with Alt+0169, and most editors, Wix included, let you insert it from the text panel.

Next steps

Updating the year in your footer is a two-minute job that quietly protects how professional your website looks, and good web design lives in details exactly like this. Edit it by hand, or set the code up once and forget it, but never let an old date undersell something you worked hard on.

Useful resource: automatically update the footer year in Wix.

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