In this article, you will learn how to add categories in WordPress in the easiest way possible and make your website feel organized.
This way, the content is categorized, and the users will find it more intuitive to look for what they need.
Categories are a significant feature of a website with WordPress since it structures it and makes it less hard to navigate around. The visitor knows exactly what to find when clicking on a category, and this is crucial to keep them as regular visitors.
Introduction to WordPress Categories
When visiting a website, you want to spend as little time wandering around as possible, and without the proper website structure, you can’t do that. So, here come the categories that help organize the content in specific places of the website.
For example, you visit a news website, and you want to read about what happened the last week in sports. First, you go to Categories and click on Sports, there you will find anything sport-related. Although, you can get more specific if you want to.
In most cases, a category will also include child categories, which makes it even more specific. From the example that we used above, let’s say we need to read only about Basketball. So from the Sports category, we are going to select the subcategory Basketball.
Then you will see only the sports articles that are related to the basketball niche. The visitor now will see only what he is interested in and will probably stay on the page even longer since they’re looking at articles related to their interest.
To make your post appear in both the categories and not only when Basketball, for example, is selected, it’s really simple. After this, all you need to do is add both of them to your post but be careful to use the main category well.
In the example that we have taken, the main category for the post should be Sports and Basketball, the subcategory.
How to Add Categories in WordPress?
Adding a category in WordPress is rather straight-forward and can be done in quite a few ways. The first of the ways that I’m going to show you is from the article editor. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard and add a new post or edit a previous one. From the right side of the text editor, you can find the categories section.
There is a text ‘Add New Category’ you can click. And when you do that, the Category Name textbox will appear, and also the Parent Category dropdown menu, as you can see in the picture below.
Now all you have to do is to enter the category name, and if it will not have a parent category leave it as is otherwise select the category. When you are done, click the button ‘Add New Category’.
You will see your new category populate the categories list. As a result, you can immediately select it for your new post.
The next way to create a category is a bit more user friendly. First, you need to hover over Posts and select the Categories option.
Second, when the new page loads on the right side, you will see categories list. And the left one the section where you can add a new one, as you can see from the picture below.
Now all you need to do is enter the name of the category, the slug, which is the name of the category. All lowercase and more URL-friendly versions.
Afterwards, if you want this to be the main category, leave the Parent Category as none. But if this is one of your child categories, select its parent from the dropdown menu.
Here you add a description to your category also, not all the themes will show it, but if you have one that does, it’s important that you fill it out.To finish the process of creating a new category, all you need to do is press the ‘Add New Category’ button.
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How to Assign a Post to a Category?
Assigning a category to a post is really straightforward, and there are two ways of doing it. The first option is to assign the category to the post while you are writing the article. On the right side of your screen, you will see the categories section, and from there, select the category that you want to assign to your post.
You don’t need to press anything else since when you press publish after finishing the article, the categories will be assigned appropriately. However, if you want to assign a new category to a published article, remember to press ‘Update’ when you are done changing the categories. as you can see from the picture below.
The second option is to hover over Post and select All Posts. First, find the article that you want to assign a category to, select the checkbox at the side of the title, under the Bulk actions dropdown menu. Next, select ‘Edit’ and then press the ‘Apply’ button.
When you press, apply, you will see this load up to your page. Under the Categories section, select the category that you want to assign to the post. Finally, press the ‘Update’ button to finish.
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How to Modify a Category in WordPress?
Modifying a category is necessary and sometimes crucial if you are making big changes to your website, so it’s good to learn how to do it. It all starts at the Categories page, which can be found when you hover over Posts from the left side of your WordPress Dashboard.
How to Change the Name of a Category?
To rename a category, the fastest and easiest way is to do it directly from the categories list. Hover over the category that you need to rename and press the Quick Edit button.
Then you can change the name and the slug directly from there, just press Update Category when you are finished.
And that’s the simplest and quickest method of renaming a category.
How to Change the Description of a Category?
To change the description of a category like I previously mentioned earlier can be crucial, especially when changes on the website are ahead. There is just one way, and it can be done from the categories page. From the list, hover over the category that you want to work on, and press the Edit button.
When the next page loads, you will be able to edit the description of the category, but only that. There you can modify almost everything there is to a category in WordPress. Just like in the picture below.
Just remember that when you finish updating the description or making any other changes to press the ‘Update’ button so that the actions that you took are saved.
How to Remove a Category in WordPress?
Removing a category from WordPress website is not hard. Most people worry about their content, as in if it’s going to get removed with the category. The answer is no; if you remove the category in this way, your content will be safe.
First you need to do is to hover over Posts at your WordPress sidebar panel and press on the Categories that i mentioned before.
When the page loads you will see the list of categories on your website. Then, hover over the category that you want to remove and press the Delete button.
When you press it, a popup will appear asking you if you are sure or not that you want to complete this action. To finish removing it, press ok.
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How to Remove all the Content for a Category?
Here is how you can remove a category and every post that has it assigned. This will work for bulk articles and can be really useful. From the Dashboard, press Posts, and you will see the list with all the posts on your website.
From the Categories dropdown menu, select category that you want to delete all the content, then press the ‘Filter button’. Then all the posts that have your selected category assigned to them will be shown on the list.
You can check the checkbox at the top to select them all, or you can select individual ones. To remove the selected content, all you need to do is to select Move to ‘Trash’ from the ‘Bulk action’ dropdown menu, and press ‘apply’.
All your content will now be in the trash. If you want to remove it permanently, you can do it from there. To remove contents under a category without using a plugin, this is a prompt and easy method.
Closing Thoughts
Categories are a crucial part of a website, and having them will make your site look more structured and organized. People who come to your site will be able to find what they are looking for easier, which will make them return to your website in the future.
It’s essential to have excellent user satisfaction to make sure you have a visited website. That’s why I recommend using categories and subcategories.
