Getting Started

Customizer

May 6, 2026 docsadmin 5 min read

Customizer Guide

The customizer is where you control the visual identity of your marketplace — colors, fonts, hero copy, footer text. Everything is live-preview, so changes show immediately and only commit when you click Publish.

Find it at Appearance → Customize.

Sections at a glance

Best Classifieds adds three top-level sections under “Best Classifieds Options”:

Section What it controls
Theme Style Color palette, individual colors, font combo, sidebar position
Hero Eyebrow text, headline, subtitle, search placeholder, “Post Free Ad” button URL
Homepage Sections Toggle each homepage section on/off, edit titles
Footer About text, copyright, social links

Standard WordPress sections (Site Identity, Menus, Widgets, Homepage Settings) work as usual.

Color palettes

The fastest way to rebrand. Best Classifieds ships with two complete palettes:

Palette Primary Accent Background Best for
Emerald & Cream (default) #0F4C3A deep green #C9A961 warm gold #FAF8F4 warm off-white Editorial, premium, trustworthy
Sunset Orange #D4582C warm orange #E8A53D saffron #FDF9F4 cream Energetic, friendly, approachable

To switch:

  1. Customize → Best Classifieds Options → Theme Style.
  2. Pick a palette from the Color palette dropdown.
  3. The preview updates instantly — every section, including the live-search dropdown and CTA banner, picks up the new colors.

Custom colors override the palette

If you set any of the four individual color fields below the palette dropdown, that color wins over the palette default. This lets you use Sunset Orange’s primary but the cream Emerald background, for example. Leave them blank to use the palette as-is.

The theme auto-derives a --bc-primary-dark variant for hover states by darkening the primary by 18% — no need to set it manually.

Hero section

The hero is the most-seen section on your site. Tune it carefully.

Eyebrow text

The small uppercase line above the headline (default: “TRUSTED LOCAL MARKETPLACE”). Keep it short — 2–4 words. This is your positioning statement.

Headline

Use HTML <em> to italicize the punchy word. Examples:

Discover what's <em>nearby.</em>
The marketplace your <em>neighborhood</em> deserves.
Buy local. Sell local. <em>Trust local.</em>

The italic word picks up the primary color automatically.

Subtitle

One or two sentences explaining what your marketplace does. Avoid feature lists here — focus on the benefit.

Search placeholder

Defaults to “Search vehicles, property, electronics…” — adjust based on your top categories. Don’t write more than 5–6 words; mobile truncates anything longer.

“Post Free Ad” button URL

This is the CTA in the header and homepage. Setting it here overrides the smart routing the Pro plugin provides. Leave blank (or #) and Pro will route automatically:

  1. To /post-a-listing/ if it exists
  2. To login (with redirect back) if the user is logged out
  3. To the WP admin “Add new post” if logged in

For most sites: leave blank. Only override if you point to a custom landing page.

Homepage sections

Toggle each homepage block independently:

Toggle Default
Show Categories grid On
Show Recent Listings On
Show How It Works On
Show Testimonial On
Show CTA banner On

Disabling sections is safe — the homepage flows naturally when any are hidden. Use this to A/B test your homepage layout.

Editing the testimonial

Customize → Best Classifieds Options → Homepage Sections → Testimonial:

  • Quote — the actual customer testimonial (no quote marks needed; the design adds curly quotes)
  • Name — first name + initial works best (“Marcus T.”)
  • Location — city + state (“Brooklyn, NY”)

Keep the quote under 240 characters. Longer testimonials read awkwardly in the editorial layout.

About text

The first column. Two short paragraphs work better than one long one. Mention what you do, where you serve, and who you’re for.

Plain HTML allowed. Common patterns:

© 2026 Your Marketplace. Made with care · <a href="/privacy/">Privacy</a> · <a href="/terms/">Terms</a>

The WOW Feeder sets this; replace it before launch.

The 4-column footer is widget-driven. Appearance → Widgets shows four areas:

  • footer-1 — typically About + brand statement
  • footer-2 — Browse Categories (Categories widget)
  • footer-3 — Quick Links (Custom HTML widget)
  • footer-4 — Stay in Touch (newsletter, contact email)

Mix and match any standard widget here. The WOW Feeder pre-populates them; replace with your real content.

Best Classifieds Options → Theme Style → Sidebar position:

  • Right (default) — content + 320px sidebar on right
  • Left — sidebar on left, content right
  • None — full-width content, no sidebar reserved

Listing archives and category pages always force “None” regardless of this setting — they have their own grid layout. The setting only affects standard posts and pages.

Font combinations [Pro]

Pro adds a Font combo dropdown with 6 curated pairings:

Combo Display Body
Playfair + Inter (default) Playfair Display Inter
Cormorant + Manrope Cormorant Garamond Manrope
Lora + Source Sans Lora Source Sans 3
DM Serif + DM Sans DM Serif Display DM Sans
Fraunces + Nunito Fraunces Nunito Sans
EB Garamond + Inter EB Garamond Inter

All fonts are self-hosted (no Google Fonts CDN calls — good for GDPR and PageSpeed). Switch any time without breaking layout.

Saving and rolling back

  • Publish commits the change site-wide.
  • Save Draft keeps changes pending; visitors still see the published version.
  • Schedule publishes at a future date — useful for seasonal palette swaps.

If you publish something you regret, the customizer doesn’t have built-in version history. Make a snapshot in wp_options before big changes:

wp option get theme_mods_best-classifieds > backup.json
# ... make your changes ...
# To restore:
wp option update theme_mods_best-classifieds "$(cat backup.json)" --format=json

What’s NOT in the customizer

  • Logo image — set via Customize → Site Identity → Logo (standard WordPress)
  • Favicon — Site Identity → Site Icon
  • Menus — Customize → Menus, or Appearance → Menus for full editor
  • Widgets — Customize → Widgets, or Appearance → Widgets

These all live under standard WordPress UI; we don’t duplicate them.

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