Are you interested in hiding the author’s name from the WordPress post? If you don’t want to display metadata like name and date then we have here a post on how to remove author, date, and category from WordPress post for you.
An Author’s name is one of the most important types of metadata that is added to your web post. When readers visit your website or blog they get to know who created the content on the blog. In fact, people add a special column on their page with complete details of the author.
However, if you are not the sole writer of your blog, it’s better to hide the author’s name. In fact, there are multiple websites that work with the contribution of freelance writers. So they want to be consistent with their blog by not displaying anyone’s name. Some people may even like to keep their identity anonymous.
Another thing is the date and category of the post. This metadata shows how recent your article is and the section it belongs to. Some people don’t like updating their articles regularly so they think of hiding the date. So the reader won’t know whether the article is new or old. Also, an article may belong to different categories so it’s better to hide its category.
So, here is how to remove the author, date, and category from WordPress post. Let’s get into it right away.
How to Remove Author from WordPress?
Let’s Do It Manually
Do you know your theme has a code written for displaying the author’s name? Themes use different ways to display the name so you must first go with the manual method. Here, we will edit the code to remove the author’s name. Before proceeding we would recommend you keep a backup all the files ready. Just in case you commit a mistake at least you can undo it with the data.
First, navigate to the WordPress theme files section on your dashboard. For different themes, the code is embedded in different sections. It will be in content.php, index.php, single.php, or archive.php files. Under these files, there is a section called functions or template-tags with PHP extension. This is where the real code lies. Look at every minute detail that sounds like a post by, author, or anything like that.
Now, you must delete the code. Make sure you do not delete the whole function. Instead, leave the function blank by deleting the data in curly brackets, i.e. between “{“ and “}”. After that save the changes and look for the results. It will hide the author’s name.
Use “Show Hide Author” Plugin
Here, the process is quite simple. Use add a new section in plugins for adding a new one. Now, search for the show hide author plugin. Once you find it, click on install now and activate it.
Open the plugin and you will see a series of checkboxes. By default, they will be set at your current settings i.e. author name visibility on. You must uncheck the box and save the changes. In case, you want to restrict this setting to a few articles then use the text boxes for the same.
Create A Generic Author
Here, you won’t remove the author but replace it with a generic one. You might have seen this on multiple websites where they use terms like “Editorial Team” in place of the author. First, add a new author to your WordPress website. Now, write a username name for it.
After that, save the username and go back to all users. Here, you will get an option to edit the username’s nickname. Now, write a name for display. There is a drop-down option to select the “Display name publicly as” and save the information.
Next, go to all posts and edit the screen options with a number of items. It is the number of articles you want to view. Click on all the checkboxes in front of articles and apply the changes.
Remove Author and Date via Plugin
There are a few plugins that facilitate the removal of both author and date. Here, we are going to use WP Meta and Date remover. It will remove the information in just one go. You need to add this plugin and activate it. After that, all the information is removed.
If you are more interested in the technical part then there are two ways of hiding the data. One is through front end via Cascade Style Sheets and the other is through back end i.e. PHP. The difference lies in visibility on search engines. In the case of the back end, it won’t be visible on search engines too. You can choose any of these methods.
How to Remove Category
First, log in to the dashboard. Click on the posts section on the left panel. Now, click on edit just below the post name. Here, you will find the categories section on the right. You must uncheck the box or boxes. Once you save the changes, the category will no longer appear.
Conclusion
WordPress offers its users with tons of options to customize the display. We know it is not easy for beginners to learn all of them in a single day. It takes time to understand the different settings and plugins. Before making changes that will directly affect your website make sure you keep a backup ready. Even if you have a separate dashboard for testing it, creating a backup is a smart choice. Here, we have explained how to remove the author, date, and category from the WordPress post.
It’s actually good to display your name on the blog. It makes a better connection between the author and readers. Also, if the date is displayed it will tell them that you are updating the articles. The category, on the other hand, helps in understand the bigger scenario. Your readers may want to read more from the same category.
Still, if you are interested in doing so then go ahead. If you find these methods useful then do let us know. We would like to know about the various methods you use to remove any of them. It will help us improve and we can share more information with the readers. Do share your reviews on the article in the comment section.
