In WordPress, a category is a way to group related posts together. Categories help you organize your posts and make it easier for your visitors to find the content they’re interested in. For example, if you have a food blog, you might create categories like “Recipes,” “Restaurant Reviews,” and “Food News.”
When you create a new post in WordPress, you can assign it to one or more categories. This allows you to classify your content and make it easier for your visitors to find related posts. For example, if you write a post about a new restaurant you visited, you might assign it to the “Restaurant Reviews” category.
Categories are displayed on your website in a variety of ways, such as in the main navigation menu, in a sidebar widget, or on an archive page. Visitors can click on a category to view all the posts that have been assigned to that category.
Add a new category in WordPress
To add a new category in WordPress, follow these steps:
- Log in to the WordPress dashboard: Go to your website’s login page and enter your username and password to log in to the WordPress dashboard.
- Go to the Posts menu: From the dashboard menu on the left, hover over the “Posts” menu and click on the “Categories” submenu.
- Add a new category: On the Categories page, you’ll see a form where you can add a new category. Enter the name of the category in the “Name” field and add a slug (a short, URL-friendly version of the category name) if desired. You can also add a description of the category in the “Description” field.
- Save the new category: When you’re finished, click the “Add New Category” button to save the new category. The new category will now be available for you to assign to your posts.
Alternatively, you can also add a new category while creating or editing a post. To do this, click the “+ Add New Category” link under the “Categories” section on the post editor screen.
WordPress Parent Category
In WordPress, a parent category is a top-level category that has one or more subcategories (also called child categories) under it. For example, you might have a parent category called “Food” with subcategories like “Recipes,” “Restaurant Reviews,” and “Food News.”
Parent categories can be useful for organizing your content into broader topics and making it easier for your visitors to find the content they’re interested in. When you assign a post to a subcategory, it will also be assigned to the parent category automatically.
You can create and manage parent categories and subcategories from the WordPress dashboard by going to Posts > Categories. From there, you can add new categories, edit existing categories, and delete categories that you no longer need. When creating a new category, you can choose to make it a child category of an existing parent category by selecting the parent category from the “Parent” dropdown menu.
It’s important to note that WordPress categories are hierarchical, which means that they can have multiple levels of parent and child categories. This allows you to create a complex hierarchy of categories to organize your content as needed.
WordPress Category SEO
Optimizing your categories for search engines (SEO) can help improve the visibility of your website in search results and drive more traffic to your site. Here are some tips for optimizing your WordPress categories for SEO:
- Use descriptive and relevant category names: Choose names for your categories that accurately describe the content of the posts that will be assigned to them. Avoid using vague or generic names like “Miscellaneous” or “News.”
- Use keyword-rich slugs: When you create a new category, WordPress will automatically generate a slug (a short, URL-friendly version of the category name) for you. You can edit this slug to include keywords related to the category. For example, if your category name is “Vegan Recipes,” your slug might be “vegan-recipes.”
- Use category descriptions: When you create a new category, you can add a description of the category in the “Description” field. Use this field to provide more context and information about the category and include relevant keywords.
- Use tags and categories effectively: When you create a new post, you can assign it to one or more categories and add tags to further describe the content of the post. Use tags and categories effectively to help search engines understand the content of your posts and improve their ranking in search results.
- Use SEO plugins: There are many SEO plugins available for WordPress that can help you optimize your categories and other aspects of your website for search engines. Some popular options include Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack.
By following these tips, you can help improve the SEO of your WordPress categories and drive more traffic to your website.
WordPress change default category
To change the default category in WordPress, follow these steps:
- Log in to the WordPress dashboard: Go to your website’s login page and enter your username and password to log in to the WordPress dashboard.
- Go to the Settings menu: From the dashboard menu on the left, click on the “Settings” menu.
- Click on the Writing submenu: From the Settings menu, click on the “Writing” submenu.
- Change the default category: On the Writing settings page, you’ll see a section called “Default Post Category.” From the dropdown menu, select the category that you want to be the default.
- Save your changes: When you’re finished, click the “Save Changes” button to update your settings.
From now on, any new posts that you create will be assigned to the default category that you have selected. You can still assign posts to other categories if needed, but the default category will be preselected when you create a new post.
It’s important to note that you can only change the default category for posts, not pages. If you want to change the default category for pages, you’ll need to use a plugin or custom code to do so.
