remove powered by wordpress link

February 10, 2023

How to Remove the Powered by WordPress Footer Links

Do you want to remove the ‘powered by WordPress’ footer links on your site?

By default, most WordPress themes have a disclaimer in the footer, but this can make your site look unprofessional. It also leaves less space for your own links, copyright notice, and other content.

In this article, we will show you how to remove the powered by WordPress footer links.

Why Remove the WordPress Footer Credits?

The default WordPress themes use the footer area to show a ‘Proudly powered by WordPress’ disclaimer, which links to the official WordPress.org website.

Many theme developers take this further and add their own credits to the footer.

In the following image, you can see the disclaimer added by the Astra WordPress Theme.

While great for the software developers, this ‘Powered by….’ footer can make your site seem less professional, especially if you’re running a business website.

It also lets hackers know that you’re using WordPress, which could help them break into your site.

For example, if you’re not using a custom login URL, then hackers can simply add /wp-admin to your site’s address and get to your login page.

This disclaimer also links to an external site, so it encourages people to leave your website. This can have a negative impact on your pageviews and bounce rate.

Is it legal to remove WordPress footer credit links?

It is perfectly legal to remove the footer credits link on your site because WordPress is free, and it is released under the GPL license.

Basically, this license gives you the freedom to use, modify, and even distribute WordPress to other people.

Any WordPress plugin or theme that you download from the official WordPress directory is released under the same GPL license. In fact, even most commercial plugins and themes are released under GPL.

This means you’re free to customize WordPress in any way you want, including removing the footer credits from your business website, online store, or blog.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can remove the powered by WordPress footer links.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t want the video or need more instructions, then simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1. Removing the ‘Powered by’ Link Using the Theme Settings
Method 2. Removing the ‘Powered by’ Credit Using Full Site Editing
Method 3. How To Remove the ‘Powered by’ Disclaimer Using a Page Builder
Method 4. Removing the WordPress Disclaimer Using Code
Warning! Avoid the CSS Method at All Costs!

Method 1. Removing the ‘Powered by’ Link Using the Theme Settings

Most good theme authors know that users want to be able to edit the footer and remove the credit links, so many include it in their theme settings.

To see whether your theme has this option, go to Appearance » Customize in your WordPress admin dashboard.

You can now look for any settings that let you customize your site’s footer, and then click on that option.

For example, the Astra theme has a section called ‘Footer Builder.’

If you’re using this theme, then simply click on the ‘Footer’ section and select ‘Copyright.’

Doing so will open a small editor where you can change the footer text, or even delete it completely.

How to remove the 'powered by WordPress' disclaimer

No matter how you remove the footer disclaimer, don’t forget to click on ‘Publish’ to make the change live on your site.

Method 2. Removing the ‘Powered by’ Credit Using Full Site Editing

If you’re using a block theme, then you can remove the footer disclaimer using Full Site Editing (FSE) and the block editor.

This is a quick and easy way to remove the ‘Powered by’ credit across your entire site, although it won’t work with all themes.

To launch the editor, go to Appearance » Editor.

Then, scroll to your website’s footer and click to select the ‘Powered by’ disclaimer.

You can now replace it with your own content, or you can even delete the disclaimer completely.

Editing the 'Proudly powered by WordPress' credit using the full site editor

When you’re happy with how the footer looks, simply click on ‘Save.’ Now if you visit your site, you’ll see the change live.

Method 3. How To Remove the ‘Powered by’ Disclaimer Using a Page Builder

Many WordPress websites use the footer to communicate important information, such as their email address or phone number. In fact, visitors might scroll to the bottom of your site looking specifically for this content.

With that in mind, you may want to go one step further and replace the ‘Powered by’ text with a custom footer. This footer could contain links to your social media profiles, links to your affiliate partners, a list of your products, or other important information and links.

You can see the WPBeginner footer in the following image:

The best way to create a custom footer is by using SeedProd. It is the best page builder plugin and comes with over 180 professionally-designed templates, sections, and blocks that can help you customize every part of your WordPress blog or website.

It also has settings that allow you to create a global footer, sidebar, header, and more.

First, you need to install and activate SeedProd. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: There’s also a free version of SeedProd that allows you to create all kinds of pages using the drag-and-drop editor. However, we’ll be using the premium version of SeedProd since it comes with the advanced Theme Builder.

After activating the plugin, SeedProd will ask for your license key.

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the key, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Once you’ve done that, go to SeedProd » Theme Builder. Here, click on the ‘Add New Theme Template’ button.

In the popup, type in a name for the new theme template.

Once you’ve done that, open the ‘Type’ dropdown and choose ‘Footer.’

SeedProd will show the new footer template across your entire site by default. However, you can limit it to specific pages or posts using the ‘Conditions’ settings.

For example, you may want to exclude the new footer from your landing pages, so it doesn’t distract from your main call to action.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on ‘Save.’

This will load the SeedProd page builder interface.

At first, your template will show a blank screen on the right and your settings on the left. To start, click on the ‘Add Columns’ icon.

You can now choose the layout that you want to use for your footer. This allows you to organize your content into different columns.

You can use any layout you want, but for this guide, we’re using a three-column layout.

Choosing a layout for the WordPress footer

Next, you can edit the footer’s background so that it matches your WordPress theme, company branding, or logo.

To change the background color, simply click on the section next to ‘Background Color’ and then use the controls to choose a new color.

Changing the background color of a WordPress footer

Another option is to upload a background image.

To do this, either click on ‘Use Your Own Image’ and then choose an image from the WordPress media library, or click on ‘Use a stock image.’

Adding an image to a custom WordPress footer

When you’re happy with the background, it’s time to add some content to the footer.

Simply drag any block from the left-hand menu and drop it onto your footer.

After adding a block, click to select that block in the main editor.

The left-hand menu will now show all of the settings for customizing the block.

Simply keep repeating these steps to add more blocks to your footer.

You can also change where each block appears by dragging them around your layout.

A custom footer, created using the SeedProd theme builder

When you’re happy with your design, click on the ‘Save’ button.

Then, you can select ‘Publish’ to complete your design.

For your new footer to show up on your website, you’ll need to finish building your WordPress theme with SeedProd.

After building your theme, go to SeedProd » Theme Builder. Then, click on the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ switch.

Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new footer live.

For a step-by-step guide, please see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme.

Method 4. Removing the WordPress Disclaimer Using Code

If you can’t see any way to remove or modify the footer credits in the WordPress customizer, then another option is to edit the footer.php code.

This isn’t the most beginner-friendly method, but it will let you remove the credit from any WordPress theme.

Before making changes to your website’s code, we recommend creating a backup so you can restore your site in case anything goes wrong.

Keep in mind that if you edit your WordPress theme files directly, then those changes will disappear when you update the theme. With that being said, we recommend creating a child theme as this allows you to update your WordPress theme without losing customization.

First, you need to connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client such as FileZilla, or you can use a file manager provided by your WordPress hosting company.

If this is your first time using FTP, then you can see our complete guide on how to connect to your site using FTP.

Once you’ve connected to your site, go to /wp-content/themes/ and then open the folder for your current theme or child theme.

Inside this folder, find the footer.php file and open it in a text editor such as Notepad.

In the text editor, look for a section of code that includes the ‘powered by’ text. For example, in the Twenty Twenty-One theme for WordPress, the code looks like this:

<div class="powered-by">
				<?php
				printf(
					/* translators: %s: WordPress. */
					esc_html__( 'Proudly powered by %s.', 'twentytwentyone' ),
					'<a href="' . esc_attr__( 'https://wordpress.org/', 'twentytwentyone' ) . '">WordPress</a>'
				);
				?>
			</div><!-- .powered-by -->

You can either delete this code entirely or customize it to suit your needs. For example, you may want to replace the ‘Proudly powered…’ disclaimer with your own copyright notice.

After making your changes, save the file and upload it to your server. If you check your site, then the footer credit will have disappeared.

Warning! Avoid the CSS Method at All Costs!

Some WordPress tutorial sites may show you a CSS method that uses display: none to hide the footer credit links.

While it looks simple, it’s very bad for your WordPress SEO.

Many spammers use this exact technique to hide links from visitors while still showing them to Google, in the hopes of getting higher rankings.

If you do hide the footer credit with CSS, then Google may flag you as a spammer and your site will lose search engine rankings. In the worst-case scenario, Google may even delete you from their index so you never appear in search results.

Instead, we strongly recommend using one of the four methods we showed above. If you can’t use any of these methods, then another option is hiring a WordPress developer to remove the footer credit for you, or you might change your WordPress theme.

We hope this article helped you remove the powered by WordPress footer links. You may also want to check out our expert pick of the best contact form plugins and proven ways to make money online blogging with WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Remove the Powered by WordPress Footer Links first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 16, 2020

How to Edit the Footer in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you need to edit the footer area of your WordPress website? The footer area appears at the bottom of each page on your WordPress site.,

There are several different ways website owners can utilize this area and make it more useful for their website visitors.

In this article, we will show you how to edit the footer in WordPress.

What is the Footer in WordPress?

The ‘footer’ in WordPress is the bottom part of your website that appears after the content area. It normally appears on all pages on your website.

This part of the website is located far down below and is often ignored by most beginners for a long time. However, there are several ways you can utilize this area by making it more helpful for your users, WordPress SEO, and your business.

All top WordPress themes come with footer widget area that’s easy to edit. You can also carefully edit the footer.php template file in your theme to remove unwanted links from this area.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily edit the footer in WordPress. You can use the following links to jump to the section you want to read.

Adding widgets in your footer
Removing the ‘Powered by WordPress’ text from your footer
Adding code to WordPress footer

Editing Widgets in Your Footer in WordPress

Many popular WordPress themes have widget areas in the footer.

You can use these widget areas to add text, images, or links to your privacy policy and legal disclaimers in the footer area.

Adding text and images is quite straight forward. You can simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add a Text, Image, or Gallery widget to your footer widget area.

To add a widget, simply drag and drop it into a footer area. If you need more help, then see our article on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Note that many themes will have multiple footer areas, and they may use them differently. You can preview your website after adding widgets to make sure that they appear where you want them to be.

Adding Links in Footer Widget Area

You may also want to add links to different pages, categories, or to the legal pages of your website in the footer area.

WordPress comes with an easy to to manage those links using the navigation menus. Simply head over to the Appearance » Menus page and click on the ‘create new menu’ link.

WordPress will ask you to provide a name for your new menu. Enter a name that helps you easily identify this menu and then click on the ‘Create Menu’ button.

Your menu is now ready and you can start adding links to it. Simply select the pages, posts, categories from the left column to add them to your menu.

Once you are finished, click on the Save Menu button to store your changes. For more help, see our article on how to create navigation menus in WordPress.

Your menu is now ready to be added to the WordPress footer widget area. Simply visit the Appearance » Widgets page in your WordPress admin and then add the Navigation Menu widget to your footer area.

In the widget settings, select the footer navigation menu you created earlier from the dropdown menu and click on the Save button.

You can now visit your website to see your footer links in action.

You can create multiple navigation menus in WordPress and add as many navigation menu widgets to your sidebar as you need. If you need another set of links simply repeat the same steps again.

Removing the ‘Powered by WordPress’ Text from Your Footer

When you first install WordPress, your site may have a ‘Powered by WordPress’ link in a footer bar at the bottom. This isn’t a widget, so it’s often not clear how to change it.

Some themes will alter this to their own text and link. If so, you can normally change this text using the live theme customizer. Simply go to Themes » Customizer in your WordPress admin. Look for an option to edit your site footer:

We’re using the Astra theme for this example. With Astra, you need to go to Footer » Footer Bar in the customizer. You will then have the option to change the text of your footer bar:

Once you’ve finished editing the text, don’t forget to click the Publish button at the top of the screen to put your changes live.

Go ahead and view your site to see your new footer:

For more help, take a look at our in-depth guide to the WordPress theme customizer.

Editing the Footer Text Manually

What if your theme doesn’t have the option to edit the footer text using the customizer?

In this case, you need to edit the footer.php file. It is a template file stored in your WordPress theme folder and is responsible for displaying the footer area for that particular theme.

The easiest way to edit this is by using an FTP client to connect with your WordPress hosting.

First, download the /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/footer.php file and then edit it in a text editor.

You will need to find the line in the file with the ‘Powered by WordPress’ text. This is how it looks in the Twenty Twenty theme:

<div class="footer-credits">

	<p class="footer-copyright">&copy;
		<?php
		echo date_i18n(
			/* translators: Copyright date format, see https://www.php.net/date */
			_x( 'Y', 'copyright date format', 'twentytwenty' )
		);
		?>
		<a href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a>
	</p><!-- .footer-copyright -->

	<p class="powered-by-wordpress">
		<a href="<?php echo esc_url( __( 'https://wordpress.org/', 'twentytwenty' ) ); ?>">
			<?php _e( 'Powered by WordPress', 'twentytwenty' ); ?>
		</a>
	</p><!-- .powered-by-wordpress -->

</div><!-- .footer-credits -->

Then, simply delete or change that text, and reupload your footer.php file.

Tip: Make a copy of your footer.php file before making changes. That way, if you accidentally break anything, you can easily upload the original file again.

For more help, check out our guide on removing the ‘Powered by WordPress’ footer link.

Adding Code to Your WordPress Footer

Sometimes, you may need to add code snippets to your WordPress footer. This is often done in order to connect your site with an external app.

For instance, to add a Pinterest button to your site, you need to add Pinterest’s script to your footer. You may also see a tutorial that asks you to insert your Google Analytics code there.

The easiest way to do this is to install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply go to Settings » Insert Headers and Footers in your WordPress admin. Go ahead and copy and paste your footer code into the ‘Scripts in Footer’ box:

Don’t forget to click the Save button before moving on.

For more help, take a look at our guide to adding header and footer code in WordPress.

If you’re looking to add Google Analytics, then we recommend you use another method instead which helps with better tracking.

We hope this article helped you learn how to edit the footer in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best drag & drop WordPress page builder plugins, and our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Edit the Footer in WordPress (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.