How to Remove “Powered by WordPress” Footer Links

All websites created with default WordPress themes feature the “Powered by WordPress” link in the footer. Some people may not even notice it, but most dislike seeing such a disclaimer on their site because they don’t want to be viewed as “Just another WordPress site” or come across as unprofessional.

When it comes to having this link removed from your website, you should know there isn’t a universal solution. In fact, it all depends on the theme you are using. We will show you how to remove “Powered by WordPress” from your footer using the platform’s default Twenty-Twenty theme.

And don’t worry, it is perfectly legal to remove footer credits. WordPress is an open-source project released under the GPL (General Public License), meaning you are free to modify and even redistribute it however you please.

How to Remove the Copyright Footer Disclaimer in WordPress

N.B. Before you start making any changes, we advise you to back up your site. In case something goes wrong, you can always restore the previous version of your website.

We will talk about the two safest ways of removing the “Powered by WordPress” link:

The third way of removing the disclaimer is by using CSS. However, we do not recommend it because that method puts your site at the risk of being flagged as spam. Google doesn’t like sites that hide links with CSS, so it’s better not to do it and save yourself from poor SEO performance. But in case you still wish to go down the CSS route, use this code – .site-info{display: none;}

Removing the WordPress Copyright Footer by Editing the footer.php File

To access the footer.php file of your theme, you need to connect to your website using a file manager. Then, go to public_html/wp-content/themes/the_name_of_your_theme/footer.

In our case, since we’re using the Twenty Twenty theme as an example, the path to the file looks like this:

public_html/wp-content/themes/twentytwenty/footer

Alternatively, you can select Appearance > Theme Editor and select Theme Footer from the list of theme files on the right side of the screen.

Next, look for the “Powered by WordPress” text and delete it from the file starting from the div tag:

Update the footer.php file and you won’t be seeing the copyright disclaimer on your site any longer.

Removing the WordPress Copyright Footer by Using Theme Customizer

This method of removing the link doesn’t work on Twenty Twenty, but it can be applied to a variety of other WordPress themes.

From your admin dashboard, go to Appearance > Customize. You can disable the footer disclaimer by accessing one of the following options – Footer/Footer Area/Site Identity/Copyright Area, and deleting the copyright link from the designated field. Once again, this method will not work on all themes, in which case you will have to remove the link via code.

Final Words

Removing the “Powered by WordPress” footer link is as easy as it gets. Whether you choose to do it by editing the footer.php file or by using theme customizer doesn’t make that much of a difference because neither of the methods requires coding knowledge while both allow you to remove the disclaimer in no time.