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WP-CLI names the object first and the action second. The command is wp plugin list. Type wp list plugin into a terminal and you get a usage error, not a list, and that single transposition explains a good share of the searches for the phrase.

The other group of people typing it want something else entirely: a list of posts, categories, headings or products rendered on a page. That is a front-end job with its own set of tools, covered in what a wp list plugin is and how to pick one. This page is about the terminal command and the inventory it produces.

What wp plugin list prints, and what it needs to run

WP-CLI’s reference page for wp plugin list says it displays the plugins installed on the site along with activation status and whether an update is available. In practice that is four columns: name (the plugin folder slug, not the pretty title), status, update, and version.

Two things have to be true before it works. WP-CLI has to be installed on the server, and you need SSH access with a shell user that can read wp-content/plugins. Shared hosting without SSH rules this out; skip to the admin-screen method further down.

cd /var/www/example.com/htdocs
wp plugin list

Output looks like this:

+--------------------+----------+-----------+---------+
| name               | status   | update    | version |
+--------------------+----------+-----------+---------+
| akismet            | active   | none      | 5.3.3   |
| classic-editor     | inactive | none      | 1.6.5   |
| contact-form-7     | active   | available | 5.9.8   |
+--------------------+----------+-----------+---------+

The status column is the one people misread. inactive means installed but switched off, and an inactive plugin still has its PHP files sitting on disk where a known vulnerability can be reached in some configurations. Inactive is not removed.

The flags that turn output into an audit

The bare command is a glance. The flags are what make it useful on a Monday morning when someone asks which of forty sites is running the plugin that just got a CVE.

• --status=active or --status=inactive narrows the list to one state.
• --update=available shows only plugins with a pending update.
• --field=name returns a single column, one value per line, ready to pipe.
• --fields=name,version,status picks the columns you want, in order.
• --format=csv or --format=json changes the output shape for spreadsheets and scripts.
• --path=/var/www/example.com/htdocs tells WP-CLI where WordPress lives if you cannot change directory first.
• --url=example.com targets one site in a multisite network.

The combination worth memorising is the CSV export:

wp plugin list --field=name --format=csv > plugins.csv
wp plugin list --fields=name,version,status --format=csv > inventory.csv

That is the whole answer to “how do I get a spreadsheet of every plugin on this site”. You do not need to install a plugin to list your plugins. Adding a single-purpose utility to export something the command line already prints adds code, an update obligation and one more thing that can go unmaintained.

For a network, loop the sites and tag each row with its URL so the rows stay distinguishable after you merge them:

for site in $(wp site list --field=url); do
  echo "$site"
  wp plugin list --url="$site" --fields=name,status,version --format=csv
done

What each error message actually means

“Error: This does not seem to be a WordPress installation”

You are not in the WordPress root. Either cd into the directory that holds wp-config.php and wp-content, or pass --path.

The version of this that bites hardest is pasting the example path from a tutorial. --path=/var/www/html/wordpress exists on a lot of demo servers and almost no real ones. If it happens to match a stale copy or a staging clone, the command runs, prints a clean list, and you walk away from a security audit with a false all-clear. Confirm the path with pwd or your host’s document root setting before you trust the output.

“wp: command not found”

WP-CLI is not installed, or the wp Phar is not in your $PATH. Managed hosts usually document their own install path or alias; some require you to call a versioned binary such as wp-cli or a PHP-specific wrapper. Check the host’s SSH documentation before installing your own copy into a home directory.

Permission errors, and the root habit that causes them later

The shell user needs read access to wp-content/plugins. Run as the user that owns the WordPress files:

sudo -u www-data wp plugin list

wp plugin list is read-only, so root does no damage here. The problem is the muscle memory. The same session usually continues into wp plugin update, which writes files as whoever ran it, and now PHP-FPM owns nothing and updates from the dashboard start failing with permission errors nobody connects to last week’s terminal session.

Plugins that look missing on multisite

Network-activated plugins and per-site-activated plugins are different states. Run the command against one site with --url=example.com and you see that site’s picture, which is not the network’s picture. Administrators regularly conclude a plugin has vanished when they are simply asking the wrong context. Decide which scope you want before you read the list, and label the export accordingly.

An update list that is short but wrong

This is the failure worth being paranoid about. --update=available depends on WordPress being able to reach the WordPress.org update API. If a host firewall, a security plugin or an outbound proxy blocks that request, the command returns a short list of updates and everything else looks current. Nothing errors. The site reads as patched.

Cross-check when the result looks suspiciously clean: open Dashboard then Updates in wp-admin, or compare against the version numbers on the plugins’ own WordPress.org pages. A network of sites that all report zero pending updates on the same day is a connectivity story, not a maintenance achievement.

A list is not an audit until you act on it

Producing the inventory is step one. The failure that managed hosts keep writing about is owners who run the list, see an unpatched or closed plugin, and leave it active. The sequence that finishes the job:

1. wp plugin list --update=available to see what has a fix waiting.
2. Update what is patched. wp plugin update --all for bulk, on staging first if the site earns money.
3. Check anything with no update against its WordPress.org page. A plugin whose listing has been closed will not get a patch.
4. Deactivate and then delete what cannot be fixed. wp plugin deactivate slug followed by wp plugin delete slug removes the files rather than parking them.
5. Re-run the list and keep the CSV. That file is your evidence of what the site looked like on that date.

Step four is where people stall, because deleting a plugin means replacing whatever it did. Budget for that rather than postponing it, and if a broken plugin is the reason you are running the audit in the first place, work through fixing WordPress plugins that are not working before you start deleting things.

If the running and the reading and the replacing is the part that never gets scheduled, SiteSelf handles WordPress plugin updates and removals through chat: you describe the audit you want, the agent does the work on the site with the access you have given it, and reports what changed and what it checked.

Listing your plugins without SSH

The Plugins screen in wp-admin carries the same information with a worse export story. The filter links above the table split the list into All, Active, Inactive, Update available and, when relevant, Recently Active and Drop-in. Set the screen to show all plugins per page from Screen Options, then copy the table into a spreadsheet by hand.

FTP or the host’s file manager is the last resort. Browsing wp-content/plugins shows you folder names and nothing else: no versions, no activation status, no update state. It answers “what is installed” and none of the questions that matter for security.

If you wanted a list on the page, not in the terminal

Half the traffic to this phrase wants output a visitor can see. The command has nothing to do with that. Name the list type first, because it decides the tool:

• Headings in a long article. A table of contents plugin builds the list from the content. Easy Table of Contents, in the WordPress.org directory, generates one automatically from the headings in posts, pages and custom post types.
• Posts from a category. List Category Posts lists posts by category in a post or page using the [catlist] shortcode, with options such as [catlist name="news"].
• A queried list inside a block theme. Try the core Query Loop block before installing anything. It covers most recent-posts and category-feed layouts.
• Tabular data you maintain by hand. A table plugin, not a post-query plugin. Asking a query tool to behave like a spreadsheet ends badly.
• Your installed plugins shown publicly. Possible with a shortcode plugin, and rarely a good idea. A published list of your plugins and versions is a map for anyone scanning for known vulnerabilities.

When one of these goes wrong, the cause is almost always setup rather than code. A shortcode rendering as literal [catlist] text on the page means the plugin is not activated, the shortcode has a typo, or it sits in a context that does not run shortcodes. A blank list usually means the plugin has nothing to list yet because its items or categories were never created.

Frequently asked questions

Is wp plugin list safe to run on a live site?

Yes. It reads plugin data and prints it; it changes nothing. The caution belongs to the commands people run next, such as wp plugin update --all, which should go through staging and a backup on any site where downtime costs money.

How do I see only the plugins that need updating?

wp plugin list --update=available. Pair it with --fields=name,version for a tidy report. Treat an empty result with suspicion if the site has not been updated in months, since blocked outbound requests to the update API produce the same empty result.

Can I get JSON instead of a table?

Yes, --format=json. It is the format to use when the list feeds something else, such as a script that compares staging against production and exits non-zero when versions drift.

Why does the name column not match the plugin’s title?

The name column is the plugin slug, which is the folder name under wp-content/plugins. That is what every other wp plugin subcommand expects as an argument, so it is the useful identifier even when it reads nothing like the name on the Plugins screen.

Does a small number of active installs mean a plugin is risky?

Not by itself, but it is a weak maintenance signal. A utility plugin with a handful of installs has fewer people reporting bugs and less reason for the author to keep shipping releases. Check the last-updated date and the support forum before you build anything on it, and prefer a core feature or a command over a plugin when both do the job.

Most footer edits are one line of text: a stale copyright year, a missing privacy link, a phone number that changed. The edit takes ten seconds once you are in the right screen. Getting to the right screen is the whole job, because WordPress has four systems that can each own the bottom of the page.

A block theme keeps the footer as a template part in the Site Editor. A classic theme keeps it in Customizer panels, widget areas, or baked into footer.php. A page builder may hold its own footer template. Editing the wrong one is why people say the site “did not save” when it saved perfectly, just somewhere that does not render. The same routing problem shows up whenever you edit themes in WordPress, and the fix is the same: diagnose the layer, then edit.

How to tell which layer owns your footer

Log in and look at the Appearance menu. That one menu answers the question in a few seconds.

• Appearance has an Editor item: a block theme is active. The footer is a template part inside the Site Editor. WordPress.org’s documentation says the Site Editor is only available when a block theme is installed and active, so its presence is a reliable signal.
• Appearance has Customize and Widgets but no Editor: a classic theme is active. The footer lives in a theme panel in the Customizer, in footer widget areas, or in the theme’s own options screen.
• A page builder runs the site’s templates: check the builder’s own template or theme-builder area too. Builders sometimes take over the footer and sometimes leave it with the theme, and which one is true decides where you edit.
• None of those screens contain the text you can see on the front end: the footer is hard-coded in a theme file or printed by a theme credit hook. Skip to the child theme section below.

One more check before you start. Look at what you are about to edit and ask whether it is global. A footer template part changes every template that includes it. A widget in Footer 1 changes every page with that sidebar. A block you added to the bottom of a single page template changes that view only. Almost every “it only changed on one page” report is that last case.

Block themes: edit the Footer template part, not the bottom of a template

Go to Appearance, then Editor. From there, themes differ in where they file the footer, which is the single most common reason people decide it is missing:

1. Try Patterns, then look for a Footer entry, often grouped under a heading such as Template Parts or All template parts.
2. If your version shows Template Parts as its own item, look there instead.
3. Failing both, open Templates, pick any template such as Index or Single, scroll to the bottom of the canvas and click into the footer area. The block toolbar will name it as a template part, and the three-dot menu gives you an edit option that takes you into the part itself.
4. From the front end, the admin bar’s Edit Site link drops you into the same editor. Scroll to the footer, hover, and click the edit control that appears.

Inside the part, edit blocks as you would anywhere else: paragraph text for the copyright line, a Navigation block for footer menus, Social Icons, Site Logo, columns for a multi-column layout. Then save. The save dialog lists what is being written, and for a footer edit it should name the Footer template part. If it lists a template such as Single or Page instead, you edited the template, not the part, and the change will not follow you across the site.

Spacing and padding are block settings, not footer settings

There is no “footer padding” control, which sends people hunting for a setting that does not exist. Select the Group block that wraps the footer content, open block settings, and set Styles, then Dimensions, then Padding. Check the mobile preview before saving, because a footer that looks balanced at desktop width often collapses badly at 375 pixels. If the footer is built from nested Columns inside Columns, flattening it to one Group with a few child blocks makes the spacing predictable and easier to debug later.

Classic themes: the Customizer panel, widget areas, or neither

Open Appearance, then Customize, and look for a panel with any of these names: Footer, Footer Bar, Bottom Bar, Footer Builder, Site Identity, Theme Options, Site Info or Copyright Text. Theme authors name the same thing a dozen ways. Inside, you are usually looking for a field called Footer Text, Copyright Text or Footer Credits.

Two things trip people here. First, Customizer changes stay in preview until you click Publish. A change that looks applied in the preview pane and absent on the live site is usually just unpublished. Second, some themes accept shortcodes in that field, commonly [current_year] and [site_title], which means the year updates itself every January instead of going stale.

For widget-based footers, go to Appearance, then Widgets, and look for areas named Footer, Footer 1, Footer 2, Footer Column or Footer Bottom. Edit the Text or Custom HTML widget that holds your content, or add a Navigation Menu widget for legal links. If the footer area lists no widgets and offers nowhere to add them, the theme does not support footer widgets, and more hunting will not produce one. That is the moment to switch strategy rather than keep clicking.

If there are several text widgets in the same footer area, make sure you have the right one. Widget IDs such as text-4 and text-5 look identical in the list. Change a word in one, watch the preview, and you will know which instance renders where.

When no screen in the dashboard changes the footer text

Then it is in the theme’s code. Classic themes keep the closing markup in footer.php, which WordPress’s theme handbook treats as a template partial that other template files pull in. Some themes print credits through an action hook of their own, along the lines of do_action( 'theme_name_credits' ), so the text is not in the file you are reading either.

Editing the parent theme’s footer.php works right up until the next theme update overwrites it. Use a child theme instead. WordPress’s handbook describes child themes as a way to modify an existing theme without editing that theme’s code, and a copied footer.php in the child folder takes priority over the parent’s.

1. Take a backup, or make sure your host’s restore point is recent, before you open any PHP file.
2. Create or activate the child theme.
3. Copy footer.php from the parent theme folder into the child theme folder, keeping the same filename.
4. Edit only the human-readable text and HTML. Leave PHP functions, tags and structure as they are.
5. Upload, then reload the front end.

The one line you must not remove is the footer hook. WordPress’s function reference describes wp_footer() as firing the action that prints scripts and data before the closing body tag, and plugins rely on it:

<footer id="site-footer">
    <p>&copy; <?php echo esc_html( date( 'Y' ) ); ?> <?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></p>
</footer>
<?php wp_footer(); ?>
</body>

Delete or relocate that call and the page still renders, which is what makes it nasty. What stops is analytics, tracking pixels, chat widgets and any script a plugin enqueues in the footer. People then spend an afternoon debugging the plugin that is working fine.

Two failure signatures tell you a PHP edit went wrong: a blank white page, or “There has been a critical error on this website.” With debugging on or in the server error log you will see something like Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ... in wp-content/themes/your-theme/footer.php on line 42. The line number is the fastest route back. Restore your backup, or re-upload the original footer.php from a fresh download of the theme, then redo the change in the child theme.

If a theme’s footer links are wrapped in eval( base64_decode( '...' ) ), stop. That is a theme hiding its own links from you, and it is a reason to question where the theme came from rather than a puzzle to solve.

Adding tracking code to the footer without touching the theme

Scripts are a different job from footer design, and they should not go in footer.php at all. A header and footer snippet plugin stores the code outside the theme, so it survives theme updates and theme switches. WPCode’s listing in the WordPress.org plugin directory describes exactly this: inserting header and footer scripts, pixel code and custom snippets. Install it, open Code Snippets, then Header & Footer, paste into the Footer box, and save.

Two caveats. The footer box still depends on wp_footer() existing in the theme, so a theme with a mangled footer file makes the plugin look broken. And a heavy third-party script in the footer is still a heavy script: test the page after adding it rather than assuming footer placement makes it free.

WooCommerce stores have two footers

On a store, “the footer” is ambiguous. The storefront footer is a theme object and follows the rules above: Customizer panels on a classic theme such as Storefront, the Footer template part on a block theme, and Appearance, then Menus, to assign a dedicated footer menu for terms and privacy links. Some block-and-classic hybrid themes ship both a block footer and a classic footer, and only the active mode shows your edit, which is worth checking before you assume nothing saved.

The email footer is a separate system entirely. WooCommerce’s settings documentation lists an Emails tab under WooCommerce, then Settings, and the footer text used in customer emails is edited there under the email template options, with placeholders such as {site_title} and {site_url}. For structural changes, copy wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/templates/emails/email-footer.php into wp-content/themes/your-child-theme/woocommerce/emails/email-footer.php and edit the copy. Editing the file inside the plugin folder works until the next WooCommerce update replaces it.

Check the edit before you call it done

A footer change touches every page, so verify it like one:

• Load the home page, one blog post and one other page type. A correct template part edit appears on all of them.
• Clear the site and host cache, then reload in a private window. Managed hosting caches routinely make a saved change look like a failed one, and re-editing on top of a stale page makes the mess worse.
• Check the mobile width. Footers break there first.
• Click the links you touched, including the legal ones.
• Confirm the footer is still a real <footer> element if you rewrote the markup. Replacing it with a plain <div> removes the landmark that screen reader users rely on to jump there.

Know the way back before you need it. Site Editor template parts have revisions in the sidebar. Widget content can be pasted back from a copy you kept. File edits come back from the backup you took in step one, which is the step people skip.

When to stop and get help

Stop if the footer text is not in any dashboard screen and you are not comfortable working in theme files, if the site is already showing a critical error, or if the credits are obfuscated. Stop also if the request is “change this one line” and the answer keeps turning into FTP access and a child theme, because the cost of the workaround has overtaken the cost of the change. Design changes on an existing WordPress site are the kind of work SiteSelf does through chat, using the connector plugin for content and settings and hosting access for anything in theme files, though pages owned by a visual page builder are refused with the reason.

Frequently asked questions

I changed the footer text in the dashboard and the site looks the same. Why?

Four usual causes. You did not click Publish in the Customizer. You edited a template instead of the Footer template part. Your host’s cache is still serving the old page. Or the theme supports both a block footer and a classic footer and you edited the inactive one.

How do I remove “Proudly powered by WordPress” from the footer?

Work through it in order: a footer text or site info field in the Customizer, a theme-specific credit setting, a credit-removal plugin built for your theme, and only then a child theme copy of footer.php. If the theme exposes a credit hook, hook into it and output your own markup instead of deleting the hook call, which can take other output with it.

Will my footer changes survive a theme update?

Customizer and theme option values survive updates, though a theme switch loses theme-specific options. Child theme file overrides survive. Parent theme footer.php edits do not. Code stored in a snippet plugin survives both updates and theme switches, which is why tracking code belongs there.

How do I make the copyright year update itself?

In a theme footer field, try the theme’s shortcode, commonly [current_year]. In a child theme file, use <?php echo esc_html( date( 'Y' ) ); ?>. In a block theme, a small plugin that provides a dynamic year block drops into the Footer template part without any file editing.

I edited the dashboard footer text and the public site did not change.

Those are different systems. The admin_footer_text and update_footer filters change what appears at the bottom of wp-admin only. The public footer comes from the theme’s template part or footer.php.

Should I disable the Theme File Editor?

On any site where non-developers have admin accounts, yes. Adding define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true ); to wp-config.php removes the in-dashboard file editor, so footer PHP work has to go through FTP or your host’s file manager, where a backup is part of the routine.

A color change made directly in a theme’s stylesheet looks right all afternoon. Then the theme updates and it is gone, along with the spacing fix from last month. Nothing was wrong with the code. It was saved in a file that the update was allowed to replace.

That is one of two ways theme edits fail. The other is faster and louder: a stray character in functions.php and the site returns a blank page or the message “There has been a critical error on this website.” Both failures come from the same root cause, which is editing in the wrong place for the kind of change being made.

So the useful question is not “how do I open the theme editor”. It is “which layer does this change belong in”. There are three, and WordPress stores each one differently.

Check whether your theme is a block theme or a classic theme first

The instructions for every step below depend on this, and the dashboard tells you in one click. Open Appearance:

• Appearance → Editor means a block theme is active. WordPress.org’s Site Editor documentation states the Site Editor is only available when a block theme is installed and activated, so its presence is the test.
• Appearance → Customize means a classic theme, where design settings come from the Customizer and the theme’s own options screens.
• Appearance → Theme File Editor means file editing is switched on. Many hosts and security plugins remove it, which is not a fault.
• A builder screen such as Elementor, Divi or Beaver Builder on your pages means a fourth model sits on top of the theme. Edit those pages in the builder; theme templates may not control them at all.

Most confusing tutorials are confusing because they were written for the other model. A guide that says “go to Appearance → Customize” is describing a classic theme, and on a block theme that menu item does not exist.

Match the change to the layer that stores it

Three layers, in order of how safe they are to touch:

• Settings. Customizer options, theme option screens, Site Editor global Styles. Saved in the database. Survives theme updates. Limited to what the theme exposes.
• Templates. Block templates and template parts in the Site Editor, or PHP files such as single.php and header.php in a classic theme. This is where layout actually lives. Block template edits go to the database; PHP template edits belong in a child theme.
• Code. functions.php, hooks and filters. This is where sites break, and where a snippet plugin is usually the better home.

Before opening anything, write the change as an outcome: “make the mobile header shorter”, not “edit the header file”. Outcomes point at a layer. File names point at whichever file you happened to guess.

Block themes: Styles for global design, templates for layout

Open Appearance → Editor and pick the surface that matches the scope of the change.

1. Styles for site-wide typography, colors, spacing and button styling. Changes here apply everywhere and are the first thing to try.
2. Patterns and template parts for reusable pieces: the header, the footer, a call-to-action band. Editing the header template part changes every page that uses it.
3. Templates for the structure of a view: single post, page, archive, search results, 404.
4. Save, then load one real page in the browser at full width and at roughly 375px wide.

The most common block-theme mistake is a layer mismatch in the opposite direction: editing a page’s content when a template governs the output, then concluding the change “didn’t save”. If the element appears on many pages, it comes from a template part. If it appears on one page only, it is content.

A child theme of a block theme is usually a folder with a style.css header and a theme.json that overrides specific settings, rather than a pile of copied PHP.

Classic themes: the Customizer, then Additional CSS, then stop

Start at Appearance → Customize and look for the setting that matches the outcome: Site Identity for the logo, Colors, Menus, Widgets, Homepage Settings, plus whatever panels the theme adds. Anything you set here is update-safe.

Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS is the right home for presentation tweaks the markup already supports: a button color, a font size, tighter spacing. It is stored in the database, it is easy to remove, and for a handful of rules it beats building a child theme.

Additional CSS stops being the answer when you are fighting specificity to move things around. If you are stacking !important to rebuild a header, the markup cannot produce the layout you want. At that point the honest options are a child theme template, a different theme, or a developer. More CSS just makes the next person’s job harder.

If the change is clear but you would rather not be the person hunting for the template, design changes on an existing theme are the kind of work SiteSelf does through chat, using the SiteSelf Connector plugin for settings and hosting access for theme files.

How to build a child theme with two files

A child theme gives code-level changes a place to live that updates will not overwrite. WordPress loads the child’s version of a template or stylesheet in preference to the parent’s. The theme handbook’s steps come down to a folder and two files.

The two files

Create a folder in /wp-content/themes/, for example company-child. Inside it, create style.css:

/*
Theme Name: Company Child
Template: twentytwentyfive
Version: 1.0.0
*/

The Template value is the parent theme’s folder name, not its display name. “Kadence Pro” on screen might be kadence on disk. Check /wp-content/themes/ and copy the folder name exactly, including case.

Then functions.php, which loads the child stylesheet after the parent’s:

<?php
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function() {
    wp_enqueue_style(
        'company-child-style',
        get_stylesheet_uri(),
        array( 'parent-style-handle' ),
        wp_get_theme()->get( 'Version' )
    );
} );

Replace parent-style-handle with the handle the parent uses; search the parent’s functions.php for wp_enqueue_style to find it. Declaring the dependency is more reliable than an @import in the stylesheet, because WordPress then controls load order. Some parent themes, Divi among the ones practitioners complain about most, will render badly if the child does not load parent assets correctly, so check the parent’s own child theme notes before assuming the snippet above is enough.

Copy only what you change, at the exact same path

Do not copy the parent’s entire functions.php into the child. It runs in addition to the parent’s, so duplicated function names produce a fatal error immediately. Copy only the code you need.

Template overrides work on path matching. If the output you want to change lives in template-parts/post/content.php, the child needs that same relative path, or WordPress keeps using the parent file and your edit does nothing. A misplaced override looks exactly like a caching problem.

Activate the child from Appearance → Themes, then load the homepage, a single post, an archive and a normal page. Any theme options set on the parent will need to be set again, which is a good reason to build the child theme before you spend an afternoon in the Customizer.

Put small features in a snippet plugin instead of functions.php

For hooks, filters and small behavior changes, a snippet plugin is safer than a theme file. Code Snippets, in the WordPress.org plugin directory, describes itself as a way to stop tweaking your theme’s functions.php and to add code as individual, manageable snippets.

The practical advantage is recovery. Each snippet can be switched off from the plugin’s own screen, or through recovery mode, without SFTP. Add one snippet at a time and load the site after each. The division most practitioners settle on: snippet plugin for functionality, child theme for structure and layout.

The limit is real. A bad snippet can still take the front end down, and a snippet plugin used as a dumping ground for hundreds of lines becomes its own unmaintainable mess. Database or environment-specific logic belongs in a small custom plugin, not in either place.

WooCommerce: the shop page is not a page

Editing the Shop page’s content and seeing nothing change is the single most common WooCommerce theme question. The shop layout comes from a product archive template, not from that page’s content.

Three routes, cheapest first:

• On a block theme, edit the Product Catalog or archive template in Appearance → Editor → Templates.
• On a classic theme with WooCommerce options, use the theme’s own settings. Astra, Blocksy and Kadence each expose product catalog controls in the Customizer.
• Override the template. WooCommerce’s developer docs describe copying the template into a woocommerce folder inside your theme, keeping the same directory structure, and editing the copy.

Overrides fail on precision, not concept. The relative path and filename must match the plugin’s exactly, the theme holding the override must be the active theme, and the output you are chasing may come from several templates plus action hooks, so changing one file may not be enough. Removing markup or hooks that WooCommerce expects is how add-to-cart and checkout break, so test an actual purchase after any override. Store owners who want this handled without touching template files can read about WooCommerce work through chat.

If the screen goes white after a PHP edit

The white screen and the “critical error” page are both documented in WordPress’s Common WordPress errors handbook, and a PHP error in functions.php is the usual cause after theme editing. WordPress also emails the admin address with a recovery mode link, subject line “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”. Check that inbox first.

Work in this order and stop when the site returns:

1. Revert the file. Over SFTP or your host’s file manager, remove the code you just added or restore your saved copy. Do not keep editing in the dashboard; if /wp-admin goes down too, that route closes.
2. Rename the theme folder. Change my-theme to my-theme-old in /wp-content/themes/. WordPress falls back to a default theme such as Twenty Twenty-Five. If the site comes back, the fault is in the theme.
3. Read the error. Set WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG to true in wp-config.php and open wp-content/debug.log. It names the file and the line.
4. Reinstall the theme. If the file looks corrupted, upload a fresh copy of the parent theme. Your customizations are in the child theme, which is the point of having one.

Get help when the error persists after the theme is ruled out, when you have no SFTP or file manager access, or when the site takes orders and every minute of a blank checkout costs money. Guessing is more expensive than asking.

What to check before you call the edit done

“Saved” is not “working”. Run through this after any theme change:

• Clear the caching plugin, the host cache, the CDN and your browser, in that order, before believing the change did not apply.
• View the change at a narrow width. Headers, tables, long headings and forms are where mobile breaks.
• Load every view the edited template touches: post, page, archive, search results, pagination, and one page while logged out.
• On a store, load a product, add to cart and reach checkout.
• Note what you changed, where, and how to undo it. A one-line record beats memory three months later.
• Recheck after the next parent theme update, particularly if you overrode a template.

Visual settings in the visual tools, durable overrides in a child theme, functionality in a snippet plugin, nothing in the parent theme. That split is what keeps an update from erasing your work.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Appearance → Customize missing from my dashboard?

You are almost certainly running a block theme, where the Customizer is replaced by the Site Editor at Appearance → Editor. Some themes hide parts of the Customizer too. If neither menu item appears, check which theme is active under Appearance → Themes.

Why can’t I find the Theme File Editor?

Many hosts and security plugins disable file editing from the dashboard, and multisite installs restrict it by default. It can also be off because file permissions do not allow writes. Use SFTP or your host’s file manager instead; that is the better workflow anyway, since it lets you keep a copy of the original file.

Do I need a child theme, or is Additional CSS enough?

For colors, fonts and spacing that the existing markup supports, Additional CSS is enough and it survives theme updates. For template changes, PHP, or anything structural, use a child theme. Developers disagree about the middle ground; a few dozen CSS rules do not need a child theme, but a growing pile of overrides does.

My edits do not show up on the site. What now?

Clear site, CDN and browser caches first. Then confirm you edited the template the page actually uses, since a page may render from front-page.php rather than page.php, or from a block template rather than page content. If the CSS is loading but losing, the parent rule is more specific, and if a page builder owns the page, the theme template may not be in play at all.

Where are WordPress theme files stored?

In /wp-content/themes/your-theme-name/, reachable over SFTP or through your host’s file manager. Practitioner advice across r/webdev is blunt about the rest: /wp-admin and /wp-includes are off limits, and plugin files should be overridden rather than edited in place.

Can SiteSelf edit pages built with Elementor or Divi?

No. Pages owned by a visual page builder are refused at the moment of work, with the reason given, because the builder holds the layout rather than the theme templates. Theme-level styling, templates and code on a standard theme are in scope, given the right access.

WordPress has no landing page object. There is no dedicated post type, no setting to switch on, no feature to install. A landing page is an ordinary Page, and four decisions make it act like a landing page: the template that renders it, its slug, its indexing settings, and what CSS and JavaScript load on it.

That framing is worth holding onto, because it also describes every way the page fails. Blank page, wrong layout, 404, missing from Google, form that does nothing: each one is a template problem, a permalink problem, an indexing problem, an asset problem, or a cache sitting in front of one of those. Fix the category and the symptom goes away.

Decide what renders the page before you place a single block

This is the decision that sets the ceiling on everything else. A landing page built with the block editor and a stripped template loads the theme’s stylesheet and whatever the blocks need. The same page built in a full page builder also loads the builder’s own CSS and JavaScript, on every request, whether the page uses three of its widgets or thirty.

That overhead is not fatal. It is a real cost that shows up on the metric advertisers care about. web.dev’s Largest Contentful Paint guidance puts the “good” threshold at 2.5 seconds, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads, which is a low bar to clear on a laptop and a high one on a phone on mobile data.

Three honest options:

• Block editor plus a custom template. Free, lightest, no extra plugin. You need to be comfortable in the Site Editor, and you get no prebuilt campaign templates and no built-in split testing.
• A page builder you already use across the site. Fastest to produce, easiest to hand to a marketer, and the standard choice if you publish campaign pages regularly. Adds page weight and one more thing that can conflict after an update.
• A second builder, just for landing pages. Usually the worst of both. Two builders on one site means two asset stacks, two sets of update risk, and two ways to edit the same page.

Pick one and stay with it. Overlapping tools doing the same job is the most reliable way to create a conflict you will spend an afternoon isolating.

Build the page: block theme, classic theme, or a template file

Block theme (Twenty Twenty-Four and similar)

The Site Editor is only available when a block theme is active, according to WordPress.org’s Site Editor documentation. If Appearance shows an Editor item, you have one.

1. Go to Appearance, then Editor, then Templates, and add a new template for Pages. Name it something obvious, like Landing page.
2. Delete the Header and Footer template parts from it. Keep the Content block. That is your distraction-free shell, reusable for every campaign.
3. Create the Page under Pages, then in the Settings sidebar set Template to Landing page. The Settings sidebar is the standard place WordPress exposes per-page controls in the block editor.
4. Build the page in the content area with ordinary blocks: Cover or Group for the hero, Columns for benefits, an image or two, your form block.

Classic theme

Open the Page, and in the Settings sidebar look for Template. Most classic themes ship something called Full Width, Blank, Canvas or Page Builder. Pick it, then hide anything the theme still prints, usually through the theme’s own page options.

If the theme has no suitable template, add one in a child theme rather than editing the parent. A parent theme update will overwrite your file and take the design with it. A minimal blank template looks like this:

<?php
/* Template Name: Landing page */
?>
<!doctype html>
<html <?php language_attributes(); ?>>
<head><?php wp_head(); ?></head>
<body <?php body_class(); ?>>
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); the_content(); endwhile; ?>
<?php wp_footer(); ?>
</body>
</html>

Save it as landing-page.php in the child theme. Keeping wp_head() and wp_footer() matters: drop them and your analytics, your form scripts and half your plugins stop loading on exactly the page you care about.

What goes on the page

The structure practitioners keep landing on is boring and stable: hero, the problem, the offer, no more than three feature sections, proof, objections, a repeated call to action.

The hero carries one H1 that echoes the ad or email that sent the visitor, one sentence of plain value, and one button. If the ad promised a free quote, the H1 says so. Proof goes after the benefits, not before, because a testimonial only reduces friction once the reader knows what is being offered. Named people with specific outcomes do more than a wall of anonymous “verified customer” quotes.

Keep one goal and one primary action. A second offer on the page is a second decision, and second decisions are where conversion goes to die.

The settings that decide whether the page works

Design is the part everyone looks at. These four are the part that breaks.

Slug. Short, campaign-aware, and unique. Check it does not collide with a plugin’s base, like /shop/, /docs/ or /kb/. If it does, change the plugin’s base in its settings rather than renaming the page a second time.

Indexing. Campaign pages fed only by ads can be set to noindex. Pages you also want found in search must be set to Index, with the canonical URL pointing at themselves, not at the homepage. Then check the SEO plugin’s site-wide settings, because a global “noindex Pages” rule quietly overrides the per-page fix you just made.

Navigation. Keep the page out of the main menu when traffic comes from ads or email. For a page that also serves organic search, a minimal header is a fair trade. For B2B offers, a single link to pricing or docs often costs less than the friction of hiding it.

The thank-you page. Create a separate page shown after submit, set the analytics goal on that URL, and tag campaigns with UTM parameters so you can compare channels. Without a distinct URL you are guessing which source produced which lead.

Check these before you send traffic

1. Open the published URL in a logged-out browser, not the editor preview. Template problems and cache problems only show up there.
2. Submit the form yourself. Confirm the entry arrives, the notification email arrives, and the thank-you page loads.
3. Load it on a phone on mobile data. Check the CTA is reachable without pinching and the hero image is not a 2 MB JPEG.
4. Confirm exactly one H1, descriptive button text (“Book a call”, not “Learn more”), and enough contrast on the button to read it outdoors.
5. Purge every cache layer you run: the caching plugin, the host cache, the CDN. Then reload.
6. Check the page in Search Console’s URL Inspection if it is meant to be indexed.

Do this again after any change to the page, not just at launch. Most silent landing page failures start with an edit that was never checked on the live URL. If keeping that loop going is the part that never happens, it is the kind of work you can hand to an agent that edits pages and reports back.

When the page is blank, 404s, or the form does nothing

Ranked roughly by how often each one turns out to be the cause.

Blank page or “There has been a critical error on this website”

Almost always a plugin or theme conflict, and almost always right after an update. Work in staging if you have it. Deactivate all plugins, then reactivate one at a time, refreshing the landing page after each. On a site with twenty or thirty plugins, halve the set instead of going one by one.

To avoid taking the live page down while you test, the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin from WordPress.org disables plugins for your session only. Note the caveat on its directory listing: WordPress.org flags that it has not been tested with the latest three major releases, so check it on staging first. If you are locked out of the dashboard entirely, rename the plugins directory over SFTP to get back in, then turn WP_DEBUG on in wp-config.php and read the fatal error instead of guessing.

The page 404s

Go to Settings, then Permalinks, and press Save Changes without altering anything. That flushes rewrite rules and fixes most cases. If it does not, your .htaccess or Nginx config is not writable and rules are never being written. Then check what still points at the old URL: menu items, internal links, and live ad campaigns, which will keep spending on a 404 until someone notices.

Your edits do not show up

Cache, in one of three places. Clear the plugin cache, the host cache and the CDN, in that order, and retest in a private window. Host-level caching is often not configurable from the dashboard, so a correct exclusion in your caching plugin can still be defeated by the server. If edits keep going stale on this one page, exclude the page itself from caching.

The form submits and nothing happens

Open the browser console with F12 and watch for JavaScript errors as you submit. The usual causes: a security plugin blocking the AJAX endpoint the form uses, minification or JavaScript deferral changing script order, or mixed content on a page still loading an asset over HTTP. Inside a page builder, using the form plugin’s shortcode instead of its widget removes a whole class of these problems. Turning off JavaScript optimization site-wide to make one form work is a bad trade: exclude that script instead.

WooCommerce pages

A product landing page should use the Product post type, or a normal Page with WooCommerce blocks or the [product_page id="123"] shortcode. A Page with product copy pasted in has no cart integration. Cart, checkout and account endpoints must stay out of every cache layer, including the host’s. A cached checkout is a revenue failure that looks fine from the outside.

When to stop and get help

Stop when the fix requires editing files you cannot restore, when the error is a PHP fatal inside a plugin you did not write, or when the site is taking live ad traffic and you are more than half an hour into isolating a conflict. Roll back to the last backup, point the campaign at a working URL, and debug on staging. Firefighting on production with ad spend running is how a small problem gets expensive.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a plugin to make a landing page in WordPress?

No. The block editor plus a full-width or blank template covers simple lead-gen pages, and you only really need a form plugin and an SEO plugin on top. Builders earn their place when a non-technical team needs prebuilt templates, or when you want split testing without custom work.

Can my homepage be a landing page?

Yes. Go to Settings, then Reading, choose “A static page” and select your page. Do not set the same page as both the homepage and the Posts page, which makes WordPress render blog posts instead of your layout.

Should a landing page have navigation?

For pages fed by ads or email, remove it. For pages that also need to work in organic search, a minimal header is reasonable. For considered B2B purchases, keeping one link to pricing or docs usually costs less than the friction of hiding everything.

How many landing pages should I run?

One per offer, campaign or audience segment, each with its own URL and its own tracking. One generic page serving four campaigns gives you no way to tell which message worked.

Should I use a dedicated landing page tool instead of WordPress?

External tools launch faster and ship testing out of the box, at the cost of a separate subdomain, a separate bill and a split content footprint. A common compromise is to test paid-campaign variants outside the site, then rebuild the winner inside WordPress on your own domain where the SEO value accumulates.

Will a WordPress landing page rank?

It can, if it is indexable, canonical to itself, fast on mobile, and says something substantial rather than repeating a slogan four times. Thin pages built purely for ad traffic rarely rank, whatever platform they sit on.