How to Change the Header in WordPress (Block Themes and Classic Themes)

Updated: 4 November 2026 · Applies to: WordPress 7.1.3 with the block theme Twenty Twenty-Five 1.5 and the classic themes Twenty Seventeen 4.2 and Twenty Twenty-One 2.9

Where you change the header in WordPress depends on your theme. With a block theme, such as the default Twenty Twenty-Five, go to Appearance > Editor > Patterns > Header, open the header, edit its blocks and click Save. With a classic theme, go to Appearance > Customize and use Site Identity (logo, site title, tagline) and Header Image, then click Publish.

Step 1: Find out which kind of theme you have

Look at the Appearance menu in your dashboard:

• Editor is listed: you have a block theme. WordPress hides Customize for block themes unless a plugin or the theme still uses it.
• Customize is listed (often with Design or Patterns, and sometimes Header): you have a classic theme.

With WP-CLI you can check it directly; this prints bool(true) for a block theme and bool(false) for a classic one:

wp eval 'var_dump( wp_is_block_theme() );'

Block themes: edit the header in the Site Editor

1. Go to Appearance > Editor.
2. Click Patterns. In the template parts list, click Header to see the headers of your theme (All template parts shows every part). Twenty Twenty-Five comes with three: Header, Vertical site header and Header with large title.
3. Click the header you want to change. It opens in the editor.
4. Change the blocks: click the Site Title to edit the text, select the Navigation block to change the menu, or use the + inserter to add a block such as Site Logo. Use the block settings on the right for colours, spacing and alignment.
5. Click Save. According to WordPress, the Save panel lists everything you changed, and header changes apply to every page that uses that header.

For the site title, tagline, logo and browser icon you can also use Identity, a section of the Site Editor in WordPress 7.1 (Appearance > Editor > Identity). According to WordPress, the logo set there is shown through the Site Logo block. The default Twenty Twenty-Five header contains a Site Title and a Navigation block but no Site Logo block, so add one to the header if your logo does not appear.

Undo your changes: WordPress saves your edited header in the database and uses it instead of the theme's own file. In our test the edited copy was still used after switching to another theme and back, and the theme's original returned only after the saved copy was removed. In the Site Editor that is the Reset option in the template part's actions menu (the three dots).

Classic themes: use the Customizer

1. Go to Appearance > Customize. If your theme supports a header image, Appearance > Header opens the same screen at the header image setting.
2. Open Site Identity to change the Logo (Select logo), Site Title, Tagline and Site Icon, or, if your theme offers it, to untick Display Site Title and Tagline when your logo already contains the name.
3. Open Header Image (called Header Media in themes that also allow a header video, such as Twenty Seventeen). Click Add Image, choose or upload a picture and crop it to the size the theme recommends, or click Hide image to remove it.
4. Check the live preview and click Publish.

Not every classic theme has a header image: Twenty Twenty-One, for example, supports a logo but no header image. Many commercial themes add their own header panels to the Customizer or a separate options page, so check your theme's documentation if you do not see these sections.

Change the site title and tagline with WP-CLI

Both header texts are ordinary settings, so you can change them from the command line for any theme:

wp option update blogname "Example Hosting Blog"
wp option update blogdescription "Tips from our support team"

Each command answers with Success: Updated 'blogname' option. (or blogdescription).

Common problems

• There is no Customize menu. You are using a block theme; use Appearance > Editor instead.
• There is no Appearance menu or no Editor. Changing the header needs the "edit theme options" permission, which only the Administrator role has by default (Editors and Authors do not).
• The change does not show on the site. Clear your caching plugin or server cache (for example LiteSpeed Cache) and then your browser cache (how to clear your browser cache).
• You edited header.php and the change disappeared. A theme update replaces the theme's files. Put code changes in a child theme instead, as the WordPress theme handbook recommends.

Before larger design changes, back up the database (back up the database with WP-CLI) or try them on a copy of the site first (create a staging environment).

Official documentation: Site Editor, Customizer, Child themes