How to remove WordPress version number
WordPress version tells a lot about the vulnerabilities that can get your website hacked. Learn how to remove WordPress version number effectively.
Learn to remove WordPress version number effectively.
By default WordPress will display the WordPress version number in the header meta tag of your WordPress website. This feature is there for website tracking but it is becoming more useful for hackers to know that which version of WordPress is powering your website.
By knowing the WordPress version number it’s easy for hackers to target the vulnerabilities of the specific version to hack into your website. Try to use updated version of WordPress in order to make your website mores secure, Even if you like to use an older version we suggest you should consider removing version number from the header of your website.
In this tutorial we will tell you about the ways by which you can remove WordPress version to make your website more secure from hackers.
Remove WordPress version by code
When you go into the source code of your page then you find a meta tag which contains your WordPress version number, this is a useless meta tag which is of no use to either users or search engines ranking. So its safe to remove them from the header.
<meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress 4.1.1″ />
This is the meta tag that you find in the source code of your website contains the info about the WordPress version running on your website, Now hackers can target you based in the version on this meta tag. In order to remove this you can insert a code to function.php file.
function remove_wp_version() { return ”; }
add_filter(‘the_generator’, ‘remove_wp_version’);
This will remove the version from your WordPress website completely , there is another way which you can use, again you have to put the code in the functions.php file of your theme.
remove_action( ‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’ ) ;
This will remove the code from your source code but this code will only be helpful for the WordPress version removal from the header of your website. There is still some areas like feeds and comments which can reveal the version number you are using on your blog.
Remove WordPress Version by plugin
If you are the one who don’t like to code or changes their theme frequently then you should use a plugin. Blog design is an important part of your WordPress website, The functions.php file will also change when you change the theme of your website, so you have to manually put the code in it again or the plugin takes the responsibility for doing all that for you.
There is a plugin called Acunetix WP Security
This plugin will remove the WordPress version from your website effectively, apart from version removal this plugin has many more security features that will help in adding a layer of security to your website. This is a powerful free option for your the security of your website, you can take a hint by knowing that this plugin made it to our list of best free WordPress security plugins.
Note: By removing the code you have hidden the version but for security you should update WordPress to the latest version available. Having more Plugins on your website can increase the page load time so install the ones you need most. Avoid plugins with same functionality and features.
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