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Removing wp_head() elements (rel=’start’, etc.)

In customising Wordpress you may find a need to occasionally remove or add to the Link elements that Wordpress automatically outputs in the function call wp_head(). I’ve recently had a need to remove the rel=’prev’ and rel=’next’ link elements and in trying to avoid customising the core Wordpress functions the following solutions works.

Ensure you have a functions.php file in your theme directory that you are using. If not create the file and edit the file. The following lines will help remove select lines from your wp_head() function:

remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 ); // Removes the links to the extra feeds such as category feeds
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 ); // Removes links to the general feeds: Post and Comment Feed
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'rsd_link'); // Removes the link to the Really Simple Discovery service endpoint, EditURI link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link'); // Removes the link to the Windows Live Writer manifest file.
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'index_rel_link'); // Removes the index link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'parent_post_rel_link'); // Removes the prev link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'start_post_rel_link'); // Removes the start link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link'); // Removes the relational links for the posts adjacent to the current post.
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_generator'); // Removes the Wordpress version i.e. - WordPress 2.8.4

Don’t remove these items unless you have a need to. The Wordpress generator removal could be useful if you are not religiously upgrading your Wordpress install as it helps hide the WP version from potential hackers to a certain degree.

9 Responses to “Removing wp_head() elements (rel=’start’, etc.)”

  1. Jason says:

    Great info. Not sure when you would need all of these, but I needed to remove the Wordpress version and this worked great.

    Thanks :-)

  2. Shoffy says:

    I wish I had something more significant to add… but thanks. Great info.

  3. Grab Voucher Codes says:

    Thanks for sharing! Just what I was looking for.

  4. yarongold says:

    Was looking for this! Any solution on how to remove the canonical tag?

  5. Allie says:

    Excellent quick reference. Thanks so much!

  6. Mike says:

    When I did this, I got an error when I tried to edit a post.

  7. mike says:

    remove_action( ‘wp_head’, ‘feed_links’, 2 );

    That one does nothing for me…

  8. Andy says:

    does not work

    added to my theme functions.php

    i am using atahualpa theme

    wonder why?

    please help

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