When you install the WordPress.com Stats plugin from WordPress it adds a small, simple graphic to your posts which looks like a small smiley face. Generally it’s located in the footer of your theme but no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to find it (or remove it) from the code.

Why? 

The smiley face is actually being loaded through a series of JavaScript calls from a remote server, the graphic isn’t actually located on your website at all! It’s part of the WordPress.com Stats plugin and is designed to help track visitors to your website but … it’s kinda ugly and a pain in the ass so to get rid of it all you need to do is add some code to your header.php file. Specifically, open your style.css file and add the following CSS:

[source lang="css"]img#wpstats{display:none;}[/source]

If you’re absolutely petrified of opening and editing your CSS files directly you can either pay a WordPress expert to do it for you (that’s the choice that my wife always prefers) or you can download my simple plugin which can be uploaded to your website and activated, automatically adding the code to the proper place.

How to Install

1. Download the plugin
2. Log into your WordPress Admin (http://[yourwebsite]/wp-admin
3. Surf to Plugins -> Add New
4. Select the ZIP file and Install Now
5. Activate the Plugin

For those of you who would like to know more about the Smiley Face frustrustration, Ryan Imel wrote a great piece on it a while back and there’s also a great piece on My Digital Life.

How You Can Help

I love developing plugins for WordPress and do my best to always keep them free but of course it take a lot of time and effort to build these plugins so if you’d like to say thanks, the best way is to take a few moments and write about the plugin on your own website, include a link to my website from your posts or download and rate the plugin on the official plugin directory.

Support forums are now online! If you have any questions, please visit http://forums.thisismyurl.com.