How to Remove Proudly Powered by WordPress in Footer Links?

If you are aspiring to launch your websites and have finally managed to put a comprehensive site together but you do not want Proudly powered by WordPress in the footer section then this article will help you get rid of the Proudly powered by WordPress embedded text from the footer link from your website.

Here is “how to remove proudly powered by WordPress” from the footer section in a WordPress based website.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems available in the market currently and a vast number of websites are designed, published, and managed via WordPress.

The reason for the popularity of WordPress is it’s open-source licensing and free of cost availability to the public.

It has enabled developers around the globe to create themes and templates for all sorts of websites from blogs to top e-commerce stores.

On top of its free user license, you can choose from beautiful WordPress themes by top developers.

Proudly powered by WordPress is written in the footer section and it communicates that the website is designed and managed on WordPress but if you feel like it creates a bad impression for your website then removing it is the best option to consider rather than fretting over it. For further insights on WordPress, click here.

Without further ado, let’s delve into how to remove “Proudly Powered by WordPress.” The footer message links to the WordPress website and there are multiple ways to remove the link.

Can you legally remove the “Proudly Powered by WordPress” footer link?

WordPress is a free and open-source content management platform and there are no legal implications whatsoever about anything that you want to add or remove from the selected theme of WordPress.

Now that you know that it’s perfectly legal and appreciable to remove the link, consider the following methods to remove Proudly Powered by WordPress.

If you have finalized the content and the website is ready then before making any changes, create a backup of your website in case anything goes astray.

Hiding WordPress footer from Theme settings

This method is not appreciable but it is quite easy. You just need to login to the admin console of WordPress.

Once you have logged in navigate to the Appearance menu and go to Customize, it is usually the first section where footer/ footer credits setting`s are hidden. But different themes have this setting hidden elsewhere.

Once you have found the footer section then change the link or completely remove it from the theme and you will be good to go.

Via WordPress theme customizer

To remove the WordPress footer by this method you will need to access your WordPress Admin area. It depends on what WordPress you are currently using. You might get the option to straightaway remove the footer section from the theme. Or follow these steps

1. Navigate to Appearance, click on Customize. Options are available in the WordPress dashboard.
2. Press Footer and click on Bottom Bar
3. Disable the footer from the menu or add the text that you want in the footer section.

It is an easy way to remove the footer credits but, in some themes, there is a restriction or option to remove the link that is not available.

From Native theme options

This method is best when it comes to third party themes. Native word press theme customizer can help you remove the footer, if it is not able to remove the footer link, check the theme settings.

If you are not able to find the option in theme settings then try to locate the Widgets section. Sometimes checking individual theme options is also helpful.

Rescript Footer.php

SEO is essential when it comes to the website and if search traffic is your priority then editing footer.php is a better option to get rid of the footer section.

The footer.php file houses all the information that is displayed in the footer of your site, including the “Proudly Powered by WordPress” link.

Sometimes the WordPress developers disable the theme editing option due to security reasons. If you couldn’t find the desired setting then surely your developer has locked the setting.

Don’t worry you can still edit the footer by using SFTP file manager. SFTP file manager can help you access the core files of your site. You can use the following 6 steps to edit the footer.

1. Connect with your website via SFTP file manager.
2. Open the following directory public_html/wp-content/themes
3. Now open the theme you want to edit
4. Find and open Footer.php, copy the file and paste at the appropriate child theme directory
5. Open the footer file in a text editor. Now find and erase the footer code. Code may vary depending on the theme.
6. For the 2016 theme follow the following code.
7. For the 2019 theme, add the following code

After adding the footer file update the file and the credit link will be gone or modified as per the changes in the code.

By using CSS

You can also use the CSS method to hide the footer link but it is detrimental to the SEO of your website and can severely damage the ranking of your website. This method can make your site appear as spam in Google’s search engine algorithm.

This method is however really quick and you can easily do it in a few steps.

1. Go to Appearance then click on Customize in the WordPress dashboard
2. Find the Additional CSS option at the bottom of the menu
3. Then add the code that you want to hide the footer with

We don’t advise taking this route to remove footer links but if you want to risk the traffic coming from the Google search then you can try it.

This method is often used by spammers to conceal malicious links from the visitors, that is why Google does not rank such pages. WordPress also enables the users to take SEO measures, you can learn how to make your site SEO here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions: What is Proudly Powered by WordPress?
“Proudly Powered by WordPress” is a small credit note that appears in the footer section of various WordPress themes. A link is embedded in the text that rediverts the traffic to wordpress.org.

Questions: How to remove “Proudly Powered by WordPress?”
You can remove proudly powered by WordPress by using these five methods

1. Hiding WordPress footer from Theme settings
2. Via WordPress theme customizer
3. From Native theme options
4. Rescript Footer.php
5. By using CSS