Best Practices for Customizing Header and Footer in WordPress

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing an issue with my WordPress.org site using the Astra theme. When I started, I wasn't very familiar with site creation. I began customizing the site by modifying the default header and footer provided by the theme, but it didn't quite meet my needs. So, I wrote custom HTML and CSS for both the header and footer.

For the footer, I inserted my custom HTML code into "Footer Builder" > "Widget 1".

For the header, I placed my custom HTML directly into the theme's header.php file, replacing the original header. I did this because when I added the header as a widget, the main header still appeared below the widget header, which was confusing.

My question is:

  • Is it better to use a header/footer widget (and does it override the original one or just appear above it)?
  • Or is it preferable to place my custom header/footer directly into the theme editor without using widgets?

If I want everything to be perfect, especially regarding SEO, what's the best approach?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

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