How to Auto-update Your Copyright in WordPress

(Republished from last year, because you need it.)

So it’s a new year…have you forgotten anything?

Here’s a hint:

Ever see a site with a copyright statement 6 months out of date? Even big-shot corporate blogs make this mistake. But on a young, growing blog, it looks particularly bad.

Or perhaps you don’t have a copyright statement at all? Tsk tsk.

Why don’t we automate this, so we’ll never, ever have to think about it again? Here’s how to do it in WordPress:

1. Log in to WordPress, and go to Theme Editor.
2. Choose “footer.php”.
3. Delete your current copyright statement (if it exists), and insert the following code:&copy; 2008 – <?php echo date(Y); ?>…replacing “2008″ with the date you started your blog.
4. If you wish, put your name adjacent to the copyright, being sure not to disturb the php date tag. See mine below for an example.
5. Done.

Happy New Year! Anyone got a good detox recipe?

SEO Advice for Bloggers

When it comes to Google, Matt Cutts is the man. Not only is he the head of Google’s Webspam team, he is the oracle who confirms or denies the swirling rumors of sandboxing, site penalties, Toolbar PageRank updates, and everything else search engine optimizers spend all day obsessing about.

This morning I ran across this video of Matt at a conference discussing SEO, with a particular focus on Wordpress blogs. Though experienced SEOs should know most of this info, there will be something in here that is new to almost anyone, and beginners in particular will benefit.

And as a bonus, a more advanced talk from SEO pro Stephen Spencer on “SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make”:

When It’s Time To Change…

If you’ve been here before, you’ll notice a major change in the look of this site. Yes, this blog has reached puberty.

After about a month of writing this and looking at it every day, I decided I had outgrown the old theme, Split Personality by Wordpress Diva. I still think she did a wonderful job on it, and I love the concept of a theme that’s split right down the middle. However, the limited screen real estate for the actual content became limiting, and felt a bit claustrophobic.

And so, after trying on about 15 other themes for size, we move on to Clean Home by Bryan Helmig of Mid Mo Web Design. I’ve made a few changes to his typography, substituting the oh-so-trendy Helvetica where he used the more classic-looking Georgia. Just to be even more trendy, I’ve reduced the letter-spacing, to give the headers that squeezed-together look. However, Bryan’s layout is intact, and I think it will serve this site well.

Thanks very much to Bryan for the theme, and I look forward to hearing your suggestions and/or feedback, positive or otherwise.