How To Hide Author WordPress? If you are a web page owner on WordPress, you probably know how difficult it gets to remove the author’s name from the web page. WordPress would not let you remove the name by default for some mysterious reasons that we have no idea about. Also, there is no option to publish anything without the author’s name and date.
This feature can easily be the most informative and useful. The author’s name can be used to follow their work and know more about them but not really if you don’t want to add it. The name will come up in every post and the webpage, which can be super annoying.
This might sound like an easy task but it’s quite the contrary. Someone who just started a new WordPress blog or web page would not know and that is exactly why we are here for you. Go through this guideline article and by the end, you will know three ways to remove the author’s name from your WordPress.
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How To Hide Author WordPress? and Why Would You Want to Remove the Author’s Name in the First Place?
If you are new to the blogging community, you might have questions in your mind about why you would want to remove the author’s name from WordPress in the first place. Giving valid credit to the author’s work is commendable and why should anyone take away that from them, right? Well, sometimes it can get more complicated.
When the author’s name is visible, anyone and everyone on the internet can see that. It can lead to stalking, harassment, and many other disadvantages. For instance, if an author has a bad social image or is associated with controversial issues, it can directly affect your brand which can make the viewers boycott your web page.
Sometimes there are multiple authors and giving credit to only one of them is not fair. Also, you can have authors who are freelancers or guest writers. You might not want to publish their names as well. These are a few of the reasons why you would want to remove the author’s name from the WordPress web page. Now that we are clear on that, let’s look into the solutions on how you can remove the author’s name.
Method 1: Remove the Author’s Name Manually
As the name suggests, you will have to edit WordPress manually in this method. WordPress has various theme files and whichever one you are using; you will edit that theme file. However, this method is for people who are comfortable with coding or have worked with them once or twice. But before you start, save the previous file of your theme or enter the child theme so that when things backfire, you can undo the changes.
As WordPress themes can use different sets of codes to display the name of the writer, you will have to first identify the code liable for showing the writer’s name. Then delete it. Moreover, the most used locations for these codes are single.php, content.php, archive.php, and index.php files. Each of these has different specifications and locations for the author’s name.
The default twenty nineteen theme uses the function twentynineeen_posted_by to edit and display the author’s name and posting date.
function twentynineteen_posted_by() {printf(/* translators: 1: SVG icon. 2: post author, only visible to screen readers. 3: author link. */'<span class="byline">%1$s<span class="screen-reader-text">%2$s</span><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="%3$s">%4$s</a></span></span>',twentynineteen_get_icon_svg( 'person', 16 ),__( 'Posted by', 'twentynineteen' ),esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' ) ) ),esc_html( get_the_author() ));}endif;The theme’s code is below:
You will have to edit and remove the author’s name output in this code.
function twentynineteen_posted_by() {}endif;Save the code and then upload the file back to the WordPress web page. Visit the web page again to see the changes you made.
If you are using the twenty seventeen theme and not the above one, then the code should look like twentyseventeen_posted_on. Edit the following code:
function twentyseventeen_posted_on() { // Get the author name.$byline = sprintf(_x( ‘by %s’, ‘post author’, ‘twentyseventeen’ ),‘<span class=”author vcard”><a class=”url fn n” href=”‘ . esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( ‘ID’ ) ) ) . ‘”>’ . get_the_author() . ‘</a></span>’);// Finally, let’s write all of this to the page.echo ‘<span class=”posted-on”>’ . twentyseventeen_time_link() . ‘</span><span class=”byline”> ‘ . $byline . ‘</span>’; // WPCS: XSS OK.}Delete the code that has the function of showing the writer’s name. For reference, see the example below:
function twentyseventeen_posted_on() { Then write all of this to the pageecho ‘<span class=”posted-on”>’ . twentyseventeen_time_link() . ‘</span><span class=”byline”> ‘ . $byline . ‘</span>’; // WPCS: XSS OK.}Save the changes and transfer the file into the WordPress server to see the new changes.
The author name will be hidden on all of your posts but the author archives will have the author name. The archive page is where WordPress’s server keeps the list of authors saved. The archive page’s URL can be found on search engine results and still get traffic on those pages. You will have to disable the author archive page using different plugins. Install a plugin and activate it. Go to SEO and then to Search Appearance, you will find the Archives tab there.
When you see the archives tab, play around with the settings. Activate/Deactivate the tab when you need it.
Method 2: Remove the Author’s Name Using Plugin
Many of you are beginners and would not know how to write all these codes. This method would be recommended for you all. We are going to work with plugins. But what are plugins? Plugins are PHP scripts that are added to your self-hosted WordPress web page to add more functionality and glamour. These are available on the WordPress Plugin directory and anyone can use them. Most of them are developed by volunteers and they keep them up for the public.
First things first, you will have to get the Hide/Remove Metadata plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory and activate it.
This hide/remove is very beginner-friendly and takes a very short time to activate your web page. You can customize the plugin easily without a single word of coding. Not everyone can code and we know it. WordPress makes the job of these people a lot easier by accommodating third party plugins. This plugin can work on most of the WordPress themes smoothly which makes our lives easier.
As you have the flexibility to either hide or remove the author’s name, you can sometimes add the name to the posts you think you should keep or remove the author’s name completely if they have been fired or are not in your team anymore.
You can use the metadata plugin in this way:
After activating the plugin, go to your Dashboard then Hide/Remove Metadata page and change the settings based on your preference.
However, there are three customization options which are Hide By, Hide Author, and Hide Published Date. The Hide By is a dropdown option; they are most likely to have CSS or PHP available to your web page. The difference between CSS and PHP is that CSS is used for partially removing the data, while PHP is used to remove them permanently.
The benefit of CSS is that you can use the tool to inspect to view the author’s information or the published date information. The other options are pretty self-explanatory. You can simply turn on the Hide Author option or Hide Published Date option for your published articles.
Don’t forget to save changes to store the newly made settings. By now, your article will have the author’s name hidden/removed in the WordPress posts.
See the picture below to see how your WordPress web page would like:
Note that this method is incredibly easy and works on most WordPress themes. If you see the theme you are using is not supporting this method, you can always opt for manually inputting the changes.
Method 3: Use a Generic Author Name for All Posts
Sometimes when writers post a controversial article or opinion, they prefer to stay anonymous. As a result, they prefer to use a generic name. This method is also used when a group of writers and editors write together and they opt to go for a common name. Readers would not notice until the writing style changes drastically.
In this article, we are going to show how to change the writer’s name for a single post and all the posts under his/her name. First of all, you will need to select the generic name and then have it as a user on the WordPress web page. To do that, log in to your website using your administrative user account and go to Users, and press on Add New. Now fill in the box with your selected name and press on Author or Contributor User Role. At last, press the Add New button.
Replacing Author Name on a Single Post
If you want to change the writer’s name on a single post, go to the article or post that you want to edit. You might have a different page builder and the flowing steps may vary with your ones. If your page builder is Gutenberg, then follow the steps we are providing.
Go to the Top Right Section of your screen and click on the Document Tab, then on the Status and Visibility Section. Find the Author name you are looking for and select the recently made Generic User Name. Now press the Update Button.
If the page builder on your WordPress webpage is Classic Editor or WPBakery Page Builder, then enable the Author Section. Now click on the Screen Options in the top right corner of the screen and you can see the checkbox next to the Author Option. Tick the box.
Scroll down to the Author Section, select the New Author, and Press Update Button on the Publish section on the right.
Replacing the Author’s Name on Multiple Posts.
If you want to remove the author’s name on multiple posts and you want to replace them all, go to Posts then All Posts. Now click on the Screen Options and see how many posts you want to change. Then find the Number of Items per page option. The maximum you can change at one time is 999. So Insert 999 in the box and press the Apply button.
Go to the title column and tick the checkbox which will select all the posts. Press on the Edit option from the menu (dropdown) above, and then press the Apply button after.
Now from the lists of options above, choose the generic author’s name and press the Update button.
The above-mentioned settings will apply to the posts within the limit of 999 but if you have more posts than that, you have to follow the same procedure for the remaining pages.
See also:
1- How To Hide WordPress Featured Image?
2- How To Use Features Icon in WordPress?
3- How To Unpublish WordPress Site?
Final Words
We hope that the instructions we provided are helpful and you are on your way to do the same for your WordPress web page’s posts. We have already mentioned why removing, hiding, or adding a new name would be a good thing for your website. Whichever fits your situation, go for the solution that we have provided and take the following steps.
You will have to also consider your skills and the page builder on your web page. If you think you have the ability to code and have time, then manually editing would be the best option for you. If not, go for the plugin options as it’s much easier and can be done within a few clicks. You can always come back to this article if you get stuck in a certain step. Best of luck!
