SMF forum footer & header customization and marketing success

Simple Machines offers free open source software such as SMF, the powerful and easy to use community forum written in PHP as the message-board program developed by The Simple Machines Organization. This forum can be used as a successful marketing tool as thousands of internet users like to use it for their simple using methods.

SMF forum footer and header customization

Changing the header title of your board is usually one of the first changes people usually make to customize your board. This helps give your site a bit of identity and can help set it apart from other websites. A good title can also help with your site's Search Engine Optimization, known as SEO. Follow the article below to learn how to edit your board title for your SMF 2.0 website.

1. Log into your SMF admin dashboard.

From the entry page, click Admin from the upper menu. This will reveal a second menu just underneath the first. Hover over Configuration and then hover over Server Settings. Click on the General option from the popup menu.

2. This lands you on the General Server Settings page. From here you will see a few settings. Look for theForum Title field and enter your new site title there.

3. Once you are happy with your new title, click on the Save button located in the lower right hand corner of the screen. This will save and activate your new header title.

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You can also remove the links and version number as well, giving you some more space. While technically allowable to remove the copyright, it is considered rude to do so since Simple Machines allows their program to be used free of charge. Follow the instructions below to find out how to modify the footer in your SMF 2.0 website.

Changing the footer content in SMF 2.0

1. Log into your SMF admin dashboard.

2. From the main page, click on the Admin link from the upper menu. This brings a second menu that appears just below the first. From there, hover over Configuration and click on Current Theme from the popup submenu.

3. A third menu will appear on the screen below the second. Find and click on the Modify Themes link to continue to the next screen.

4. You will see the different themes you have available under the Modify Themes section. Find the theme you want to modify and click on the Browse the templates and files in this theme link.

5. This brings you to a page where you will see various sections of code. Do a find (ctrl+f) for the word 'footer' and locate the section that has the following code:

<div id="footer_section">

This is the beginning of the footer area code. From here you can edit the code with HTML. For our example, we will add some text with our own copyright. You can see the line we added below highlighted in blue.

6. After adding the code, select the Save button at the bottom of the page. You can now refresh your site to see the either the new content or removed content.

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