Remove WordPress Blog Title And Description

Posted by Jeff

on November 29, 2009

There might be a situation when you have a custom WordPress theme or just a custom header and want to remove the WordPress blog title and or the description. There are several right ways to do this and one very very wrong way.

First lets start with the wrong way and that is to just remove the Blog Title and Tagline (description) from within the General Settings menu. Doing that will have your main blog page without a title for the search engines to see. So if the search engines can’t see your site or blogs title it really doesn’t matter what it looks like because not too many other people will be seeing it! The easiest to check this is to look at your web browser title bar (the very top) while on your main blog page and see what if anything is shown in it.

The correct way is to keep the Blog Title and Tagline in place and just tell your WordPress theme not to display them. First you need to look at the themes header file to see how it is calling for, and what it is calling the title and description. In the WordPress dashboard go to Appearance, Editor. Then on the right click the header.php file. There should be two bits of code in the header file that display the title and description, and those are, or should be:

<?php bloginfo('name'); ?>

<?php bloginfo('description'); ?>

Those two bits of code should be very common to almost all WordPress themes, but if yours doesn’t have it please don’t ask me about your specific theme, sorry I just don’t have time to “fix” everyone’s WordPress theme. Next we need to see what the header file is calling for from the sytlesheet, known as the style.css file. In the sample below we can see that the class blogtitle and desc are what we need to look for in the style.css file. Please keep in mind that your themes style.css file will probably call these something different. If they were uniform in all WordPress themes I wouldn’t need to show you this step!

<h1 class="blogtitle">

<a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/">

<?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a></h1>



<p class="desc"><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></p>

display:none;

So now we know to look for the class blogtitle and desc in the style.css file. So on the right click the style.css file to open it in the editor. I suggest that you copy all the text in there, or any file you are attempting to edit, and paste it into a text file safe on your computer. You have been warned! All we need to do is tell the theme’s style.css not to display the title by adding the display:none command to the stylesheet. Below shows the code added to the style.css file telling it not to show. Again keep in mind that your specific theme’s code will look different than what is shown below! All you want to add is the last line display:none;

#header h1.blogtitle{font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

margin:-0 0 0 0;

padding:0 0 0 20px;

text-align:center;

display:none; }

Next shown below is the description code for the specific theme. Again just as the title, all we need do is add the code display:none; to the stylesheet.

#header p.desc

{font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-size:12px;

margin:0;

padding:0;

text-align:center;

display:none; }

Now your blogs title and description will not be visible to your visitors but will still be visible to the search engines and should show on the browser title bar. I can’t stress enough to make a backup copy of each file you are attempting to edit.

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Tags: Advanced WordPress Guide, WordPress Editor

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Sorry but due to the spamming of a few all comments are moderated and will appear when approved and all drive-by comments will be deleted!

Comments

Comment by Paul on November 30, 2009 @ 1:46 pm

I have been trying to do this on one of my blogs and could not find a solution! Thanks for sharing. Is there a plugin that lets you do this easier?

Jeff Replied:
November 30th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

This is theme specific and no I don’t know of a plugin. But how can it be any easier?

Comment by Briefcases on November 30, 2009 @ 7:06 pm

Personally I don’t think it is a great idea to show different content to the search engines and real visitors. This is known as cloaking and can get you penalized by the search engines. Whenever possible, you should show the exact same content to search engines and visitors.

Jeff Replied:
November 30th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

You obviously didn’t read the post or don’t get it. Its not about “cloaking”. Its for when your header image has the blog info in it that you want and you don’t want the text shown on it. No dirty work in that. Thanks for the drive-by comment, your link has been removed.

Comment by newestjav on December 1, 2009 @ 1:47 am

Why remove Tittle and Description? It’s a part of SEO. You should keep it.

Jeff Replied:
December 1st, 2009 at 9:34 am

If you actually read the post it is explained that it is just visibly removed but not from the search engines.

Nice drive-by comment.

Comment by oes tsetnoc on December 1, 2009 @ 3:32 am

its better to use the seo pack for wordpress to change the titles and description for the meta tags.

Evan Model Replied:
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 am

Not all the times dude. It’s better if you optimize your blog/website manually.

Comment by Jeff on December 1, 2009 @ 9:36 am

Yes you should use a plugin like All in One SEO.

Comment by Web Design on December 1, 2009 @ 11:46 am

All in One SEO is a great plugin for SEO in wordpress. It gives you the ability to put a meta title, meta description and the relevant keywords in your post. You can customise each meta description and its really easy to plugin in wordpress and use it..

Comment by Designmoebel on December 1, 2009 @ 3:43 pm

Jeff, you said that you should hide the title and the description of an theme but what does Google think about that? I made the experience that you get kicked out of the SERPs (-500 penalty) when hiding keywords, texts and other stuff that search engines use to determine the ranking. How can you be sure that Google won’t penalty my site if I hide such information? I personally don’t think that it’s a good idea.

Comment by Jeff on December 1, 2009 @ 6:14 pm

Are you actually reading the post? And why a .blogspot.com link (removed) if you actually do have a WP blog?

Read the post and some of the above comments and my replies.

Once again it is only removing it VISIBLY from the header area, not from the page source code that the search engines care about!!! Man, I explained this in the post and two above comments.

Comment by Dean Saliba on December 1, 2009 @ 9:15 pm

Glad I stumbled across this blog. I’m always looking for ineresting hacks and tricks to improve my blog.

Hope You keep it up.

Comment by chinaphone on December 2, 2009 @ 5:23 am

Comment by Jason Tipp on December 2, 2009 @ 9:37 am

There are some parts of the code that can be useful, especially for the newbies in business. I think that every post that helps in some sort of way is priceless. There are so many blogs about blogging and about making money on internet that really gives no useful information, that I’m always pleased reading something that gives opportunity to really learn something here.

Comment by Jeff on December 2, 2009 @ 9:43 am

This post isn’t about optimizing a blog though.

Comment by CJ Sparks on December 2, 2009 @ 5:27 pm

Why would you want to remove the title and description anyways

Comment by Jeff on December 2, 2009 @ 5:40 pm

Another drive-by comment that had its link removed.
Is anyone actually reading the post?

Comment by John on December 2, 2009 @ 8:46 pm

I had spent some time doing this and finally I did, just as he said “blogs title and description will not be visible to your visitors but will still be visible to the search engines and should show on the browser title bar”, you guys should have a try, do it yourself and you can get it.

Comment by Jason Brooks on December 6, 2009 @ 10:41 am

Seems you’ve had a lot of time wasters Jeff.

I want to thank you for this post as I was running a theme that would insist on displaying my blog title over my header graphic (annoying!).

This little CSS number sorted me out.

Thanks again.

Comment by Jeff on December 6, 2009 @ 12:02 pm

Finally someone actually read the post and “gets it”! Thanks Jason.

Comment by sell your condo on December 7, 2009 @ 7:16 am

I would like to start a free WordPress blog on the WordPress site (not my own domain) but I don’t like the themes they provide. Can I use a downloaded theme on there? thanks…

Jeff Replied:
December 7th, 2009 at 11:41 pm

No you can only edit a WordPress theme that is self-hosted. None that I know of on wordpress.com can be edited. I usually delete these type questions and provide no help for wordpress.com sites.

Comment by hypnotech on December 7, 2009 @ 10:36 am

hey, if we remove blog title and description, would not that would reduce our SEO technique, an i think google doesn’t like it because blog title and site description it important to google

Jeff Replied:
December 7th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

Read the post and the comments and quit wasting your time, mine and the others who actually read this site with your drive-by comments.

Comment by Gokhiel on December 8, 2009 @ 5:38 am

I just know about it, I test in search engine with keyword “Blog Title And Description” then your blog come in the first place..yes its not effect with the SEO

Comment by Iron Man Shirt on December 9, 2009 @ 3:56 pm

i think it is cool to see how customizable wordpress can be, there is so much development for it in the way of plugins that it is great.

Comment by Handbag Hook on December 10, 2009 @ 12:41 am

There might be a situation when you have a custom WordPress theme or just a custom header and want to remove the WordPress blog title.

Comment by IT Support Bristol on December 11, 2009 @ 9:00 am

Thanks for this, was wondering how to do it. Up to now I was just using the settings page to show what I wanted visitors to see and the all-in-one seo plugin to change the desriptions for the search engines to pick up on. Nice to know that the other option (yours) is an easy one

Comment by Mucing on December 12, 2009 @ 2:02 pm

I have been trying to do this on one of my blogs and could not find a solution! Thanks for sharing. Is there a plugin that lets you do this easier?

Jeff Replied:
December 12th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

I don’t know if there is a plugin to do this but adding a few lines of code is probably as easy as adding a plugin.

Bad Credit Loans Replied:
December 13th, 2009 at 11:33 am

Hi.

1st of all, good info. Thank you for sharing.
2nd, it is easy indeed to do it manually, but… With a network of 50 or 100 niche blogs, would be cool just to install plugin and edit from settings.

Maybe someone will care to produce it and distribute it.

Comment by Lån on December 13, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

Sweet! This how-to will actually come in handy when I plan to customize my WP theme very soon. Currently it has an option to show text or image for the blog title and description. Unfortunately if I choose image it just shows the title. I want both to be in the image so that when I change the header background (w/c I do quite often depending on an occasion or so) the description text doesn’t get lost in the color of the background image.

Comment by Jeff on December 14, 2009 @ 8:48 am

No matter if one or one hundred blogs you would need to install and set a plugin for each one or edit the theme. C’mon man!

Comment by Bad Credit Loans on December 14, 2009 @ 10:41 am

Sure, you are right. Its just a question of going through WP code and searching/scrolling and editing… With plugin would be easier, on my point of view, but I guess in the end it’s up to whoever does this and how they find it easier to do

Comment by Haba Toys on December 15, 2009 @ 4:13 am

I am weak in coding but this seem easy to follow. Thanks for good sharing and make my blog become better.

Comment by dance folk on December 15, 2009 @ 9:40 am

How do you remove a calender from a wordpress blog?

Jeff Replied:
December 15th, 2009 at 5:02 pm

I usually don’t answer unrelated “forum-type” questions like this.

If it’s on the sidebar then you just go to Appearance, Widgets and add what you want to the sidebar. Doing so will remove the default sidebar items and show only what you want. However if the calendar is hard-coded into the sidebar or embedded into the theme then you will need to manually remove it in the theme’s file based on where it is showing.

Comment by Consumer court on December 16, 2009 @ 11:23 pm

I did not have any idea of weather we can change or remove WP title and description. It is good to know that we can do it quite easily. Thanks for the great post and i am sure that many people will truly like it.

Comment by Jan on January 4, 2010 @ 11:08 am

Thank you. This was the only site able to help me getting rid of the blogtitle the proper way with clear and simple instructions.

Comment by pariuri sportive on January 19, 2010 @ 12:52 pm

A nice way to remove title and description from people visibility and the search engines are still able to read it.

Comment by Sarah on January 22, 2010 @ 6:36 am

Thanks for your post. I have a theme that reinitialises the style.css file every time I make a change to the theme settings, so I don’t believe I can use your method. I do however use the All In One Seo pack. Could I therefore leave the blog title blank and use a fixed string of text instead of %blog_title% in the rewrite titles bit. I used to have my post titles ending in the pipe sign due to the blank blog title. By putting in a fixed string, am I endangering my rankings?

Jeff Replied:
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm

Sorry I just don’t know. You may want to find a goodod WordPress form to ask this.

Comment by Jeans Denim on January 31, 2010 @ 9:55 pm

I have just one question, does this tip (or post) apply to all themes? I know that wp theme designers don’t design themes to be alike. Some might differ.

Jeff Replied:
February 1st, 2010 at 8:12 am

If you actually read the post you wouldn’t have asked. Link removed for a drive-by comment.

Comment by SJL Web Design on February 11, 2010 @ 8:30 am

Cool post, I will have to try this out in my current wordpress project.

Thanks.

Comment by sudip on February 22, 2010 @ 10:00 am

thanks for the information. i have been trying this thing for last few months but to get it corrected. Hope this will going to work.

Like to have few more suggestions on wordpress.

Comment by Brandon on March 11, 2010 @ 7:33 am

Thanks for posting this. I am one of those people who did just delete the blog title from my general menu. I didn’t realize that could be harming my blog. I now need some time to update the blog. Thanks!

Comment by JC Penney Coupons on March 22, 2010 @ 10:47 am

It’s amazing how when we’re trying to make something work to our taste on WordPress, some of us hack our sites to the point where we ruin all the SEO benefits of having something as simple as a title and tagline. I was guilty of this when I was starting out but then I started relying on trusted sites such as this one to give me the information I needed. Thanks.

Comment by Bowtrol Scam on March 22, 2010 @ 2:22 pm

thanks for sharing, Unfortunately if I choose image it just shows the title. I want both to be in the image so that when I change the header background (w/c I do quite often depending on an occasion or so) the description text doesn’t get lost in the color of the background image. thanks

Comment by bathtub surrounds on March 23, 2010 @ 4:36 pm

Ooops, i have just been deleting the blog title from general menu too I have been thinking of just sticking with html and dreamweaver, i have been really struggling with wordpress, can’t seem to get it the way i want it.

Comment by Josh on April 6, 2010 @ 10:47 pm

Awesome post! Clear, easy to follow and enough detail to alleviate any SEO concerns i had. Worked great, i didn’t think it was just that easy. Kudos and Thnxzz again.

Josh @ Websytzz.com

Used it here: http://www.colimasurfside.com

Comment by Denis on April 27, 2010 @ 9:56 am

thanks for the information. It’s really nice
trick to remove title and description from
people visibility and the search engines are
still able to read it.This is really cool.
thanks again for this post.

Comment by Whitetail Deer on April 30, 2010 @ 6:28 am

Useful and informative video.But i have a doubt is it approved by google,may be google don’t like it.

Jeff Replied:
April 30th, 2010 at 7:51 am

The Google bots don’t care.

Comment by mumu on May 26, 2010 @ 7:18 am

I don’t think it is a great idea to show different content to the search engines and real visitors

Comment by Home to buy on July 4, 2010 @ 2:08 am

I want to thank you for this post as I was running a theme that would insist on displaying my blog title over my header graphic (annoying!).

Comment by Dan on July 27, 2010 @ 1:38 pm

Jeff,

I am working with the dot-com version of WordPress for this particular build, and although you don’t deal specifically with dot-com, I have upgraded so i can edit the CSS sheet for this ‘hack.’ I have successfully hid the title for the home page, but if i view each individual post the title reappears. Any advice or additional pieces of script that you now of that could help me?

Thanks,
Dan

Jeff Replied:
July 28th, 2010 at 7:33 am

The theme might use a different or separate style for the single pages. You might need to edit the CSS for or on single.php, page.php and maybe others. Also keep in mind the theme author could have called these files anything he wanted to.

Dan Replied:
July 28th, 2010 at 11:24 am

Thanks for the response Jeff. I didn’t have access to the .php files, as I’m not hosting the site myself. You got me thinking though, and I found pasting

#site-title {display:none;}

at the end of my CSS sheet hid the blog title on every page not just in the H1 of the main page. For what I’m looking to do I’ll call this success!

Dan

Comment by chatjo on July 31, 2010 @ 7:42 am

Jeff Replied:
July 31st, 2010 at 12:59 pm

If you read the comments others have said the same thing. I don’t really know or care what Google thinks of it.

Comment by Cheyenne on August 27, 2010 @ 1:09 am

I have 2 wordpress website and I had my stocl web headers changed to cutsom headers. After seeing this article I sent this article to the guy who did my custom headers. I hope he didnt mess anything up. Thanks for posting this otherwise I would have never known. What a relief!!:)

Comment by Northern Virginia Houses on September 8, 2010 @ 7:37 am

I am one of those people who did just delete the blog title from my general menu. I didn’t realize that could be harming my blog…

Comment by anssi on October 28, 2010 @ 5:49 am

Thx Jeff,

Without any programming skills (and looking for good advice for two days) I was able to hide the titles from Woo Themes Canvas. You saved my day (or few)!

.post .title, .page .title { font:normal bold 24px/24px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;margin: 0 0 15px; display:none;}
.page .title { margin: 0 0 20px 0; }

Comment by Deep Blue Yacht Supply - Propellers on December 23, 2010 @ 10:45 am

We are making the move to WordPress for our company blog, this blog has been a great help. Thanks Jeff.

Comment by Nikki Hebert on December 23, 2010 @ 7:24 pm

Comment by Helena on March 7, 2011 @ 3:00 am

thank you for this information! ive been trying to figure this out for HOURS and this was the best instruction guide! THANKS A LOT

Comment by John on March 31, 2011 @ 9:23 am

We are looking at doing wordpress blog and changing headings is very usefull. Anyhting is possible these days.

Comment by Amit on April 8, 2011 @ 5:54 am

it was good that you started with wrong way as it made me aware of what actually goes wrong while we removing the title. Then the explanation provided by you to do it the correct way was very useful.

Comment by RD Web Design on August 23, 2011 @ 12:59 pm

I believe you can also do this with the WordPress Head Cleaner plugin.

Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.