With Categories Can you organize blog posts by topic in WordPress? They help your visitors find related content faster and also give search engines an understandable structure of your website.
For example, if you run a blog about web hosting, categories like WordPress, Email, Domains or SEO be used. All posts on the same topic are thus grouped together in a common category archive.
Briefly explained: Categories are the overarching subject areas of your WordPress posts. They are suitable for a few, clearly defined topics and can be further structured into main and subcategories if needed.
What is a category in WordPress? #
WordPress distinguishes between different types of content. Pages are typically used for permanently created content, while Posts specifically intended for blogs, news, tutorials, or other regularly published content.
Categories help to sort these posts by topic.
Assuming you run a website for a travel company and regularly publish new articles. Possible categories would be, for example:
- Switzerland
- Italian
- Hiking
- City breaks
- Travel tips
A post about a hike in the Engadin could, for example, belong to the category Hiking and depending on the structure, additionally assigned to another matching category.
WordPress automatically creates an overview page for each category used, on which the assigned posts are displayed.
Why are categories important? #
A good category structure makes it easier for visitors to find their way around your website. Anyone reading an interesting post can discover more content on the same topic via the category.
Categories can also be used for different areas of your website, for example:
- Blog Navigation
- Category Archives
- Menus
- Contribution lists
- Filter functions
- thematic overview pages
Categories are also helpful for the internal structure of your website. They show which topic areas belong together and prevent blog posts from sitting next to each other in a completely disorganized way.
Important: You should create categories based on the actual topics of your website and not just because a single post contains a specific word.
How to create a new WordPress category #
You can create new categories directly in the WordPress admin area.
Procedure:
- Log in to the WordPress admin area.
- Open in the left navigation „Contributions“.
- Click on „Categories“.
- Enter a name for the new category.
- Set a slug if necessary.
- Optionally select a parent category.
- Add a description if necessary.
- Click on „Create new category“.
The new category will then be available immediately and can be assigned to your posts.
What does the category name mean? #
The name is the designation of your category that is visible to visitors.
Use terms that are as short and unambiguous as possible. A visitor should understand what content to expect there based on the name alone.
Good categories would be, for example:
- WordPress
- Web design
- SEO
- Instructions
- News
Less useful would be very general designations like Interesting, Other or Miscellaneous, if it does not indicate what content lies behind it.
What is the category slug? #
The Slug is the URL-friendly name of a category. WordPress uses it for the address of the category archive.
A category named WordPress Tips could, for example, the slug:
WordPress tips
use.
Depending on the permalink configuration, the category archive might then be accessible at an address like this:
The exact structure depends on your WordPress and permalink configuration.
Recommendation: Use short, understandable terms in lowercase for slugs. Spaces in URLs are normally replaced by hyphens.
Assign posts to a category #
You can assign a category to a post either while creating it or later when editing it.
Here is how to assign a category to a post:
- Open the desired post in the WordPress editor.
- Open the post settings.
- Search the area „Categories“.
- Activate the desired category.
- Save or update the post.
You can generally assign a post to multiple categories. However, that does not mean that every post should be given as many categories as possible.
How many categories should a post have? #
There is no fixed technical rule for this. In practice, however, a mapping that is as clear as possible is usually better than the inflationary use of many categories.
A post should be assigned to the categories whose topics it actually covers.
When almost every post is given five or six categories, categories quickly lose their actual purpose: to create a clear thematic structure.
Rule of thumb: Use as many categories as necessary and as few as possible. A category should represent a real subject area of your website.
Use main categories and subcategories #
WordPress supports hierarchical categories. So you can nest one category under another.
A possible structure could look like this, for example:
- Web hosting
- cPanel
- Domains
- WordPress
- Plugins
- Themes
- Safety
The parent category is listed as Parent category or referred to as Parent Category. The categories underneath are subcategories.
Such a hierarchy can make sense for extensive blogs. For a small blog with five or six clear topic areas, on the other hand, it would often be unnecessarily complicated.
When do subcategories make sense? #
You should only use subcategories when a topic area is large enough to be meaningfully subdivided further.
For example, if you only have three WordPress articles, you probably don't need subcategories for plugins, themes, security, and performance yet.
If, on the other hand, there are numerous posts on each of these topics later on, an additional subdivision can significantly improve navigation.
Structure before detail: It is better to start with a few main categories. You can add more subcategories later when there is enough suitable content.
What is the default WordPress category „Uncategorized“? #
WordPress requires a default category for posts. In many installations, this is initially named „General“ or in an English installation „Uncategorized“.
If you publish a post without selecting a category yourself, WordPress automatically assigns it to the designated default category.
For a professional website, a large collection of posts under „General“ is usually not very helpful.
You can therefore set a more meaningful category as the default and subsequently rename or remove the previous default category if necessary, once it is no longer used as the default.
Edit categories #
You can update existing categories at any time via „Posts“ > „Categories“ edit.
There you can, among other things:
- change the name,
- adjust the slug,
- define a parent category,
- change the description.
For established websites, you should pay particular attention to changes in Slug Handle with care.
Caution when changing a category slug #
If a category archive is already publicly accessible and possibly indexed by search engines, a new slug changes its URL.
From:
could for example become:
The previous address may no longer exist afterwards. External links, bookmarks, or search engine results may then point to a URL that no longer exists.
SEO Note: Do not change the slugs of already published and indexed categories without reason. If an existing URL has to change, it should be checked whether a permanent 301 redirect from the old to the new address is necessary.
Delete categories #
A category can also via „Posts“ > „Categories“ to be deleted.
This does not delete the corresponding posts. WordPress merely removes the assignment to the category in question. Posts that are not assigned to any other category thereafter can be assigned to the default category.
Therefore, check before deleting which posts are affected and whether another category makes more sense.
What is the difference between categories and tags? #
Categories and Keywords or tags both serve to organize posts, but fulfill different tasks.
Categories describe major topic areas of your website. They can be structured hierarchically and have subcategories.
Keywords on the other hand, describe individual features or specific topics of a contribution and do not have such a hierarchy.
An example:
An article titled „Install WordPress with Softaculous“ could the category WordPress be assigned and additional keywords like Softaculous, Installation or cPanel own.
We will also create a detailed guide on tags within this WordPress knowledge base.
Are categories important for SEO? #
Categories are primarily a tool for organizing your content and helping visitors navigate. However, a logically structured website can also help search engines understand thematic connections between your content.
WordPress generates separate archives for categories. Depending on the theme, SEO configuration, and amount of content, these can also be indexed by search engines.
Therefore, a category with numerous high-quality posts on a clearly defined topic can represent a useful overview page.
On the other hand, it becomes problematic when numerous almost empty categories are created, each containing only a single post.
SEO principle: Create categories for actual subject areas and not for individual keywords. A good category structure is derived from your content and user navigation—not from the attempt to generate as many additional URLs as possible for Google.
Avoid too many categories #
A common mistake when setting up a new WordPress blog is creating a new category for almost every post.
This quickly leads to a structure like:
- WordPress Tips
- WordPress Help
- WordPress Tutorials
- WordPress tutorials
- WordPress Guide
Such categories hardly differ in content and help neither visitors nor in structuring your website.
For example, a central category would be better WordPress, in which all matching posts are collected.
A category should be able to contain multiple posts #
Before you create a new category, you can ask yourself a simple question:
„Will I publish multiple posts on this topic in the future?“
If the answer is a clear no, you probably don't need a separate category for it.
A category is more of a permanent shelf for multiple thematically matching pieces of content than a label for a single post.
Use categories in navigation #
Depending on how your website is structured, you can also use categories in menus or other navigation areas.
On a large blog, for example, a menu item can lead directly to a category archive. This allows visitors to access an overview of all posts in that topic area.
Whether that makes sense depends on your website. For a corporate website, categories can be used primarily for the blog, while the main navigation still consists of regular WordPress pages.
Review categories regularly #
As a blog grows, its topical structure often changes as well. Categories that seemed useful at the launch may later become obsolete. Other topics may develop to such an extent that a new subcategory becomes practical.
Therefore, check occasionally:
- Which categories contain hardly any posts?
- Are there multiple categories with nearly identical meaning?
- Are the categories clearly named for visitors?
- Are there enough contents for existing subcategories?
- Have new subject areas emerged that require their own category?
A good category structure doesn't have to be perfect from the start. However, it should evolve in a controlled manner along with your content.
Categories fit into the entire WordPress structure #
If you are just getting to know WordPress, you shouldn't view categories in isolation. They belong to the broader WordPress content management system.
You can find a general overview of WordPress, posts, pages, themes, and plugins in our basic article What is WordPress and how does it work?.
If you have just reinstalled WordPress, we also recommend configuring the basic website settings first before publishing larger amounts of content.
Summary #
Categories help you organize WordPress posts into clear topic areas. You create and manage them under „Posts“ > „Categories“ and then assign them to individual blog posts.
Use a few clearly understandable categories that reflect the actual topics of your website. Subcategories are useful if a topic area has enough content to justify further subdivision.
Avoid numerous nearly identical or rarely used categories. Change the slugs of already published categories only with caution, as this can alter existing URLs. A well-thought-out category structure primarily improves user navigation while supporting a logically structured WordPress blog.
