How to Remove “Powered by WordPress” Footer Links

Why Remove WordPress Footer Credits?

By default, WordPress themes display a “Proudly powered by WordPress” disclaimer in the footer, which links to the official WordPress.org website. Some theme developers may also add their own credits to the footer.

While this is beneficial for the software developers, having a “Powered by…” footer on your website can make it appear less professional, particularly if you’re running a business website. It also reveals to hackers that you’re using WordPress, which may assist them in breaking into your website.

Additionally, the disclaimer links to an external site, which may encourage visitors to leave your website, potentially lowering your pageviews and increasing your bounce rate.

Removing WordPress footer credit links is legal since WordPress is free and released under the GPL license, which grants you the freedom to modify and distribute WordPress to others. Therefore, you’re free to customize WordPress in any way you like, including removing the footer credits from your blog, online store, or business website.

In this article, we will explain how you can remove the powered by WordPress footer links. If you prefer, you can watch a video tutorial or use the quick links below to go directly to the method you prefer.

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

Many theme authors include the option to edit the footer and remove the credit links in their theme settings, recognizing that users desire this functionality. To determine whether your theme has this option, navigate to Appearance » Customize in your WordPress admin dashboard. Look for settings that allow for customization of your site’s footer and click on that option. For instance, the Astra theme has a ‘Footer Builder’ section, where users can click on the ‘Footer’ section and choose ‘Copyright’. A small editor will appear, allowing for alteration or removal of the footer text. Once you have completed this process, be sure to click on ‘Publish’ to apply the changes to your site.

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

For block themes, Full Site Editing (FSE) in the block editor is a quick and easy way to remove the ‘Powered by’ credit from your entire website, though it may not work with all themes.

To use FSE, navigate to Appearance » Editor and select the ‘Powered by’ disclaimer in the footer of your website.

You can then delete the disclaimer or replace it with your own content.

After making the changes, click ‘Save’ and view your website to see the updated footer.

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

Many WordPress websites use the footer to display essential information, such as contact details or links to social media profiles. Instead of the ‘Powered by’ text, you may want to replace it with a custom footer that includes links to your products or affiliates, or other important information. To create a custom footer, SeedProd, a page builder plugin, offers over 180 professionally-designed templates, sections, and blocks that can help you customize every aspect of your WordPress site.

To begin, install and activate SeedProd, and then go to SeedProd » Theme Builder. Click on the ‘Add New Theme Template’ button, and in the popup window, name your new template and select ‘Footer’ as the type. SeedProd will display the new footer template across your entire site by default, but you can limit it to specific pages or posts using the ‘Conditions’ settings.

Next, use SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder interface to create your custom footer by adding columns, editing the background, and dropping content blocks. After designing your footer, save and publish it. Finally, go to SeedProd » Theme Builder and enable SeedProd theme to display your new footer on your website. For more details, see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme.

Method 4: Removing WordPress Disclaimer via Code

If you are unable to remove or modify the footer credits through WordPress customizer, editing the footer.php code is an alternative option. Although this method may not be beginner-friendly, it can eliminate the credit from any WordPress theme. Before modifying the website code, creating a backup is recommended to restore the site in case of an error.

Note that editing the WordPress theme files directly can erase changes upon theme update. Therefore, creating a child theme is advised to retain customizations while updating WordPress theme. To begin, establish a connection to the WordPress site using an FTP client like FileZilla or a file manager from the WordPress hosting provider.

If unfamiliar with FTP, refer to our FTP connection guide. After connecting to the site, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and access the folder for the current or child theme. Inside the folder, locate and open the footer.php file in a text editor like Notepad. Modify or remove the code to your preference, such as replacing the ‘Proudly powered…’ disclaimer with a copyright notice.

Once changes are made, save the file and upload it to the server. Upon checking the site, the footer credit will no longer appear.

Warning: Avoid the CSS Method Completely! Some WordPress tutorial websites might suggest a CSS method that uses “display: none” to conceal footer credit links, but it is strongly discouraged.

Although it appears to be a straightforward solution, it is highly detrimental to your WordPress SEO.

Several spammers employ this exact strategy to mask links from website visitors while still displaying them to Google in the hopes of receiving higher rankings.

If you use CSS to conceal footer credit, Google may consider your site to be spam and demote it in search engine rankings. In the worst-case scenario, Google may even remove your site from its index, resulting in it never appearing in search results.