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One of the beauties of the WP Astra Theme is unrestricted customization possibilities.
Every part or section of the theme can be customized or edited to fit your branding, including the Astra theme footer copyright text.
So, in today’s post, I’ll look at the easiest ways to remove powered by Astra WordPress theme Copyright text in the footer area.
Here is what you will learn in this Astra WordPress theme tutorial:
- Removing footer text from the theme customizer.
- Use a WordPress plugin to remove the Astra credit link.
- Customizing the text to your liking
- Adding external links to the footer, like affiliate links.
- Whether it is right/legal to remove the WordPress themes footer credit link.
- Why you should customize WordPress themes footer credit text.
- And more…
Let’s jump in.
The methods described in this post work for the free Astra theme and the Pro version.
Also, it should work to remove most WordPress themes’ footer messages or text and customize the content to fit your blog design and marketing.
Removing Powered by Astra Using Theme Customizer
Removing Astra theme copyright text via the customizer is the easiest way. This process does not require editing theme files or using a code-editor plugin.
Anyone can do this, regardless of beginner’s level or WordPress expert.
Follow the steps below to remove the Astra WordPress theme Copyright text in the footer.
- Go to Astra>customize
- Next, click “Footer Builder” in the customizer panel settings.
- Now, click “Copyright” in the option under the Elements tab.
- Under the General tab, start editing the Astra theme Copyright text.
- Switch to the Design tab to customize font, color, and margins.
- When finished, click the “Publish” button.
Though this process might differ in step one above, depending on which Astra theme version you’re using, the Astra credit link should be the same from the Footer Builder to editing.
In the older version of the Astra theme, getting to the customizer is from Appearance>Customize, then Footer Builder.
Whatever the Astra theme version or the process, you should be on a page in the WordPress theme customizer similar to the below image.
In the example image above, the Astra footer credit text did not change, but I did edit the link to my affiliate link.
So when someone clicks on the link in the footer, Astra will credit my affiliate account as the referral. And if the person buys something on the Astra website, I get paid for bringing the customer.
Removing Powered by Astra Using a Plugin
Another excellent option to remove footer credit from any WordPress theme, including Astra, is the Remove Footer Credit WordPress plugin.
This plugin works, and it does not require you to modify your theme footer.php file or CSS files. It is straightforward and takes just two or three clicks.
Simply install and activate the plugin on your WordPress blog. Next, open the plugin interface from Tools>Remove Footer Credit.
In the remove footer credit plugin interface, enter the footer text or the HTML code of your theme footer section in the box.
Note that you might need to copy the footer HTML source code to edit the text and the hyperlink.
To do this, visit your website from the frontend, and inspect the footer elements.
Most browsers require you to point your computer mouse at the item to select, right-click, and click the inspect option.
Next, to quickly locate the footer HTML snippet and save time, use the Select Tool button at the top of the inspect elements panel.
After clicking the Select Tool small button, hover your mouse on the footer elements to reveal the HTML code.
Now copy the HTML code into the Remove Footer Credit box. Enter your preferred text and hyperlink in the “enter your own footer credit” box.
Click save when you finish to allow the changes to reflect on the blog front.
The Remove Footer Credit plugin lets you remove the WordPress theme’s footer text and links from most WordPress themes, including native themes like Twenty Twenty.
You can download the plugin from wordpress.org directly or via your WordPress admin plugin area.
That’s it… Now that you know how to remove powered by Astra WordPress themes in the Footer credit, let’s explain whether editing the WordPress theme credit link and text is legal.
Is it legal to Remove the WordPress Theme Footer Copyright Text?
Since WordPress is an open-source software under the GPL license, users can modify its products to suit their personal and business requirements, including its footer branding text.
Software products under the GPL (General Public License) grant users permission to run, explore, study, modify, and make changes to the software as needed.
This license covers every theme and plugin in the wordpress.org repository, both free and premium themes and plugins.
So, in a nutshell, and for your peace of mind, you can safely modify every part of your WordPress themes and make them fit your website design.
When to Remove WordPress Footer Credit
While you can modify WordPress themes, footer credit, text, and links, I would still argue there are instances you shouldn’t do it.
A good situation is when you are using a free WordPress theme. The least you can do to support the theme developer is to leave the footer credit intact and link to the dev website.
This love may be insignificant, but it goes a long way to help the developer’s community, business, and popularity.
You’re supporting a business or course you love, believe in, and find helpful.
In contrast, you can do whatever you like to a theme when you purchase the original developer’s premium license.
Your premium license gives you exclusive rights over the theme files, codes, design, etc., including removing the footer copyright text and the link to the developer’s website.
Some of the good reasons you might want to change the Proudly powered by footer text and link are listed below:
- Drive Affiliate Conversion – If you promote the theme as an affiliate, modifying the footer link with your affiliate ID is an excellent tactic to drive conversion. Anyone clicking the theme footer link is already interested in your website theme.
- Branding – Editing the footer content allows you to create personalized footer credit, which helps with branding and improves user experience.
- Design – A clean website design can add to niche authority, remove clutter, and help people use your website better. The footer is one area where you should have a clean website design.
- Website Security – Though hackers can detect your website software files in many ways, removing copyright text can help minimize potential risks associated with website hacking.
Don’t do This To Remove WordPress Themes Footer Credit
CSS is one of the methods to avoid removing the powered-by-WordPress Footer credit.
It is easier to use CSS code to hide the footer copyright text in most WordPress themes, but it might hurt your blog’s SEO reputation in the eyes of Google.
Using CSS to remove the footer credit content does not remove the text from the theme files, instead, it hides it from site users, but search engines can still see it.
In its sole discretion, Google might think your website hides information/content from site users in an attempt to game search engine ranking algorithm.
Therefore, demote your website ranking for suspicious website content to protect users.
Another method I wouldn’t recommend is changing the WordPress theme’s footer copyright text by directly editing the theme footer.php file.
Especially for beginners, this method can break your site if you don’t know what you’re doing here.
Moreover, most WordPress theme developers advise against editing the CSS stylesheets or .php files.
Whatever edit or customization you want to make that requires editing the theme files, use the built-in CSS editor in the theme customizer.
In addition, always back up your site before making any critical changes to your website. If things don’t go as planned or your website breaks from the process, you can restore it to an earlier state from the available backup storage.
Several web hosts, such as Cloudways, automatically take a daily backup of your WordPress site, but it’s always a good thing to manually do it before making changes.
Conclusion – Remove Powered by Astra WordPress Theme
Instead of removing the proudly powered-by WordPress themes in the footer, I advise you to customize the content to fit your business purpose and branding.
Customizing the footer content can help build brand authority, increase conversion and website design, and help users identify your business position.
Astra, like any other WordPress theme, allows you to customize most of its sections and elements.
In this post, I have shown you how to remove powered by Astra WordPress theme footer copyright text.
As I said above, you should consider modifying the text instead of completely removing it from the theme.
