Header cleanup
Removes four legacy items from your document head that no modern WordPress site uses.
What it does
Four leftovers from an earlier web
Header cleanup is a Vectro performance feature that removes the RSD link, Windows Live Writer manifest, shortlink and optionally the feed discovery links from your WordPress document head.
WordPress prints several tags into the head of every page that exist for tools most sites stopped using long ago. The RSD link points at the Really Simple Discovery endpoint used by external blog editors. The WLW manifest supports Windows Live Writer, an application discontinued years ago. The shortlink offers a ?p=123 alternative URL that almost nothing consumes.
This feature removes all three. Feed discovery links are handled separately with their own toggle, because unlike the others they are still genuinely used.
Nothing here affects how your pages look or work. These are metadata tags aimed at software rather than visitors.
Why it matters
It is tidiness with a small security benefit
The performance gain is honestly modest – a few hundred bytes off each page. It is worth doing, but it is not where your load time is going.
The better argument is that each tag is a small statement about your site to anything reading the source. The RSD link in particular advertises the XML-RPC endpoint, so if you have disabled XML-RPC it is inconsistent to keep pointing at it. Removing tags that serve no purpose leaves less to inspect and fewer contradictions in what your site advertises.
How to use it
Enable, and decide about feeds
Technical detail
Which actions are removed
Vectro removes the specific wp_head actions responsible for each tag rather than filtering the output afterwards, so the tags are never generated in the first place. Feed discovery is controlled by its own separate action and is only removed when you enable that toggle.
If you also use Hide WordPress version, the generator tag is removed by that feature rather than this one. The two are complementary and can be enabled together.
?p=123 alternative URL form.Compatibility
Runs alongside everything
No conflicts detected. Vectro runs this feature regardless of other plugins active.
Questions
Frequently asked
What does WordPress header cleanup remove?
Header cleanup removes the RSD link, the Windows Live Writer manifest and the shortlink from your document head, with feed discovery links available as a separate optional toggle. None of these tags affect how your pages look or function.
Does Vectro header cleanup work with Perfmatters?
Vectro keeps running header cleanup when Perfmatters is active, because no plugin is mapped against this feature. If Perfmatters removes the same tags, each tag is simply removed once.
How do I clean up the WordPress head section in Vectro?
Go to Vectro > Performance in wp-admin, check that Remove RSD Link, Remove WLW Manifest and Remove Shortlink are on, then decide separately whether to turn on Remove RSS Feed Links. Clear your page cache afterwards so cached HTML is regenerated.
Is Vectro header cleanup free or Pro?
Yes, Vectro header cleanup is free. It is included in the free Vectro plugin on WordPress.org with no account required.
Should I remove the RSS feed links from my WordPress head?
Only if you are certain nobody subscribes to your feed and your theme does not rely on feed discovery. Vectro keeps feed links under a separate toggle for exactly this reason, so you can remove the other three tags without touching them.
Related features
Tidy the rest of the output
Vectro Pro adds DNS prefetch control and Google Fonts local hosting for further header optimisation. See Pro plans
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