I have used free theme which is available in WordPress database which have owners credits in its footer. So I want to know is it okay to keep footer credits or should I remove them? Which is best for in terms of SEO?
Hi,
My opinion is that: From respect for those who created it, and good moral character for yourelf, it is good to keep them.
Even though the template is free there are probably some terms of use and one of those terms may say the credits must remain. I would check the terms to see.
Thanks for reply, I will consider your opinion.
I would probably leave footer links for free themes and remove them for themes I pay for. It shouldn’t matter too much for SEO purposes. Might help the creator with the link a bit in terms of SEO and traffic. It shouldn’t affect the search engine rankings for your site. It’s just an outgoing link and Google will likely recognize it as a footer link. I’m not sure where I heard it but I don’t think sitewide footer links carry much weight for SEO purposes.
for legal reasons you might have to, unless you made enough changes to your copy of the theme to claim it as yours. (which has made me wonder - how much change would it have to be?)
if its an open source , you can legally remove it without any problems, i would go with removing it , for a couple of reasons :
- i like to keep my website platform hidden so none would ever think to copy or hack it
- i like to keep my website professional so i dont want to show any back-link from any other sites
Best Regard 
Thanks !!