Website Customization: Renaming Sections on Your WordPress Site

Website customization is one of the best ways to ensure that your site reflects your brand’s voice, style, and personality. It typically involves incorporating your brand’s colors and fonts, uploading your logo as the header image, adding a background design, and including branded images in your posts.

However, the branding process of site development doesn’t have to stop with the basics. There are a few extra customizations that can get overlooked, even though they’re some of the easiest ways to add an extra touch of personality to your site. One of these customizations is the ability to rename site sections.

Today, we’ll explain why you want to rename your site sections, and the various tools and widgets available to customize the different parts of your website.

Three reasons to rename the sections of your website

Internet Live Stats’ Google Search Counter reports that more than 5.5 billion Google searches are performed daily to scour the internet’s 1.24 billion websites; underscoring the need to really stand out from the crowd. Here are three additional reasons why you should move away from being a “generic” website.

1. Distinguish your site, even if you’re a newcomer: If you’re just getting started with site development, you might not have committed to a particular aesthetic. Or, you might still be in the process of creating your brand but want to get started with marketing and promotion. By retitling sections of your site, you’re infusing your brand’s voice and personality without needing to keep your finalized colors or fonts in mind.

2. Establish a sense of ownership: As a website owner, you should be in complete control over the design of your site, whether you want to use branded colors and fonts, customize your CSS, or change wording on the backend. Being able to customize even the tiniest of details gives you a sense of ownership and peace of mind from being truly in control.

3. Encourage readers to take action: Getting personal with your visitors allows you to create more compelling descriptions, and even turn a section into a mini call-to-action that entertains your readers and tempts them to make a specific choice.

Site section customization with Jetpack

There are various Jetpack tools that allow you to match your site’s appearance with your brand’s vision.

Related posts section

In addition to customizing how related posts appear and what metadata is shown on your site, you can rename the heading just above the Related Posts tool. By default, the title is short and self-explanatory, but it’s not very exciting or personal. Consider using action-oriented language that will encourage your readers to click through and read your other posts.

For example, instead of “Related,” why not tweak the heading to say, “Don’t forget to check out these posts” or “Why not stay a little longer and read these posts?”

Comments section

Similarly, you can modify the heading of the comments section to encourage engagement with your content. Instead of “Leave a reply,” create a more actionable heading such as, “Share your thoughts” or “Join the conversation!”

By using verbiage that you’d hear in everyday conversations, your readers will feel connected to you, being more inclined to break the silence and start a discussion.

Sharing section

If you write useful and engaging content, the last thing you want to do is leave the default and boring “Share this” text as your call-to-action at the end.

Instead, make it clear that you want visitors to be excited about sharing your posts. Once they see your brand’s persona reflected in a headline, they might be more likely to share your content with their own followers on social media sites. Consider using a headline such as “Share the love” or “Spread the word.”

Sidebar widgets

A sidebar is a great place to add widgets that let your readers learn more about you, while exploring your other posts and pages. With Jetpack, you have access to widgets that display author information, add email subscription functionality, inform visitors of your contact details and business hours, and more.

These widgets act as different sections in your sidebar, so making them unique helps readers understand where each widget ends and another one begins. Each widget’s custom title is another opportunity to introduce your brand’s identity into your site, invite readers to take an action, and make your sidebar more visually appealing.

Take a look at the screenshot below for ideas on how to tweak the headings of your sidebar widgets.

Show off your style with customized site sections

Customizing and personalizing the smaller details of your site, like the comments section or the related posts grid, is a great way to add a touch more style. Stand out from other websites by taking advantage of Jetpack’s tools and customizing the way your visitors connect with your site on personal levels.

What other tips do you have for website customization? Share your advice in the comments below!

Brenda Barron

Brenda Barron is a freelance writer, editor, and SEO specialist from southern California. She is a contributor to The Motley Fool and blogs regularly at The Digital Inkwell.