Remove date and author from WordPress posts.

Published WordPress blog posts will, in most cases, include relevant metadata like author name and publishing date because of your theme’s code. While this is often a beneficial feature, you’ll have to change or remove this data from your website on some occasions. During this article, we’ll cover the method of adjusting or removing the author’s name from a WordPress post, specifically.

Even though this might sound like a simple task, it is often challenging as there are no in-built options for it within WordPress. We’ll explain several methods that change in difficulty so that you’ll choose the one best suited to your needs and existing WordPress knowledge. We’ll also affect the explanations why you’d want to vary or remove an author’s name, as those can vary depending on the case.

Why can we remove the author’s name in WordPress?

Adding the author’s name may be a good thing; your audience will become conversant in their writings, and that they can differentiate your posts. Although, this might not be the case all the time, which can cause having their names removed.

In such cases, you’ll remove the author’s name from your posts. Otherwise, you can choose a generic term for your authors, like the support team or the name of your website/blog. This may not cause you much problems if you select to part ways together with your authors. On the other hand, you may publish risky content on your website, which can put the author’s credibility in peril. In cases like this, both you and, therefore, the author prefer having his name far away from the post.

For example, if a couple of people perform on a post, you can’t add their names to the post by default. Just one word is registered below the post, and you’ll want to keep your author’s limited to at least one.

How to remove the author from WordPress posts

Method 1: Manual Way To Remove Author Name from WordPress Posts

Your WordPress theme decides when and the way to display the author name in your blog posts. Themes use multiple approaches to try to do that, making it harder for a plugin to supply a generic solution for removing author names.

You will have to edit some code to stop your theme from displaying the author’s name. If you’re not comfortable editing code, then try the 2nd method instead.

The 1st method requires you to edit WordPress theme files. If you haven’t done this before, please glance at our guide on copying and pasting the code in WordPress.

Note: Confirm that you create a backup of your theme or child theme before making any changes. If something goes wrong, then this may assist you in quickly revert the changes.

WP themes use different variations of code to display the author’s name. You’ll get to locate the code liable for showing the author’s name in your theme files and delete it.

The most common locations to seek out this code are single.php, content.php, archive.php, and index.php files.

In many cases, you’ll not be ready to find the code that outputs the author name. Instead, you’ll find a template tag defined within the functions.php file or template-tags.php file.

For example, the default Twenty-Nineteen theme uses the function twentynineteen_posted_by to display author name. This function is defined in template-tags.php file and uses the subsequent code:

function twentynineteen_posted_by() {

 printf(

 /* translators: 1: SVG icon. 2: post author, only visible to screen readers. 3: author link. */

 ‘%1$s%2$s%4$s’,

 twentynineteen_get_icon_svg( ‘person’, 16 ),

 __( ‘Posted by’, ‘twenty nineteen’ ),

 esc_url( get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( ‘ID’ ) ) ),

 esc_html( get_the_author() )

 );

 }

endif;

Once you’ve located the code that outputs the author name, you would like to delete it.

For example, you’ve got to delete the code from the second line to the ninth line within the above code. Then, the remaining code will appear as if below.

function twentynineteen_posted_by() {

}

endif;

Don’t forget to save lots of your changes after deleting the author name code in the editor. Then, upload the files back to your site.

You can now visit your website to ascertain your changes in action:

Author Name Removed in WordPress Post Demo

This method hides the author’s name on all of your posts; however, the author archive pages will remain intact. An author archive page is where WP creates an inventory of all articles written by a selected user.

This URL is easily discoverable by search engines, suggesting you’ll still get traffic to those pages.

You can disable the author archives simply using the beat One SEO plugin. Once you activate the plugin, attend beat One SEO » Search Appearance in your Dashboard, then click the ‘Archives’ tab.

Now you’ll see the author archive settings. You’ll toggle the Author Archives switch and disable author archives on your site.

disable author archives in WordPress

Doing so will disable author archives and conceal the author-sitemap.xml file created by the AIO SEO plugin.

Method 2: Create a Generic Author Name for Publishing WordPress Posts

This method doesn’t remove the author name, but it is often used as a workaround.

You will create a generic author name and use it for all of your past and future articles. You’ll get to change the author’s name before publishing each post.

Note: This method is irreversible. If you are doing this and need to revert, you’ll need to manually edit each post and assign it to the first author.

That being said, let’s start.

First, add a replacement author to your WordPress site and provide it with a generic username like an editorial team.

Add new user

Next, you would like to go to the Users » All Users page and click on the ‘Edit’ link below the username you only added.

Edit user

On the user profile screen, scroll right down to the ‘Nickname’ option and enter the name you would like to be displayed (for example, Editorial Team).

After that, click on the sink menu next to the ‘Display name publicly as’ option and choose the nickname you only entered.

Select display name

You can also add a generic bio and create a gravatar for a user account.

Now attend the Posts » All Posts page and click on the highest screen options menu. Enter 999 for the number of things to display.

Show all posts on the screen.

This will allow you to edit and alter author names for an excessive number of posts.

You need to pick all posts using the checkbox then select edit under the majority actions sink menu. Then click on the ‘Apply’ button to continue.

Select all posts for bulk editing

WordPress will now show you the majority of editing options. You would like to vary the author to the generic author name you added earlier, then click on the Update button.

Bulk change author-name

WP will now update all selected posts and alter the author name. Remember, this process may take a while counting on how briskly your WordPress hosting is,

That’s all. You’ll now visit your website to ascertain it in action.

Using the Plugin Method

Let’s move ahead to the 2nd method if the primary one doesn’t work for you for a few reasons.

The initial step will remain equivalent once you log into the WordPress account you’re handling or maintain at the instant. And in fact, then you would like to seek out the Dashboard panel also.

● Find the Plugins section within the admin or Dashboard panel

● add a new plugin

● Finding the Plugins section won’t be difficult for you, mainly due to the visual reference posted above.

● Click on the “Add New”

 Clicking Add New will allow you to feature new Plugins available on the WordPress in-built store for various add-ons.

● These add-ons help increase the standard functionality of your WP website and make it easier for you to get rid of go-back WordPress posts without unwanted delays.

● Search for the WordPress Meta and Date Remover plugin

There could be multiple date remover add-ons available on the WordPress store. So, this date remover add-on is simply among the various examples available for a business owner or a blogger such as you.

● Install the plugin and activate it

When you find the plugin, then find the Install option simultaneously below it. Click that choice to begin the method of its activation further.

After it’s installed, it’s then similarly activated. So, again, there’s no trouble while doing that, even for a beginner who has limited knowledge about WordPress content and settings.

Now attend to the settings of the plugin to get rid of going back WordPress posts.

Once the plugin is thoroughly activated, attend its settings, which you’ll find once you Installed Plugins at this point rather than Add New under the Plugins section.

From the settings of this particular plugin, you’ll easily tweak the date for its removal and other metadata or meta element from the WordPress blog.