How To Use Categories on Your WordPress Blog

So lets say you’re a blogger who uses WordPress. You’ve got a great blog with awesome content that is continuously growing. The question at hand is how do you keep all of that awesome content organized? It’s an important question; after all, you don’t want your readers to stop by for one blog post and then disappear forever do you?

Of course not. You want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to find more posts that are relevant to their specific interests, both in the moment and in the future. The best way to do that is having a well organized Category structure. You see, everyone (including especially blog readers) has something very specific they are looking for. You may write content on that subject, which will get their attention, but odds are not everything you write will appeal to every reader.

So you Categorize! When you write a post, you can assign it to a Category, or multiple Categories. This post for example, is filed under the “WordPress Basics” Category.  I could also assign it to other Categories if more than one was applicable. Your readers can then sort the posts on your blog based on the categories you place them in – which helps them find more posts they’ll be interested in.

Selecting a Category for a post is pretty simple. On the right hand side of the Post Editing screen, the Categories section is just below the “Post Tags” section. All you have to do is check off the Categories you want this post to be filed under.

But What If I Don’t Have Any Categories Yet?

What’s that? The only Category you have right now is “Uncategorized?” We can fix that. “Uncategorized” is the default category for your posts. Once you’ve set up additional categories you can change the default on the “Settings > Writing” page.

If you’re already in a post and want to add a new category on the fly, you can click the handy little “Add New Category” link. You’ll be able to type in the name of the new Category and select if it should be a Child or Parent. We’ll discuss that a little more in a moment. As soon as you click the “Add” button, the new Category will be created and automatically selected for this post (Note: You’ll probably have to deselect “Uncategorized”).

Using the Post Categories Dashboard

You can add, edit and delete your Categories by selecting “Categories”  from the “Posts” menu. On the left hand side of that screen you have options for adding a new Category. Here’s a breakdown of each one:

• Name – Exactly what it sounds like
• Slug - A “URL friendly” version of the Category Name. If you have symbols or spaces in the name they’ll be replaced by dashes and other items that work in web addresses. You can leave this blank, and it will be created for you.
• Parent – This allows you to create “Sub-Categories” for increased organization. A good example would be having a category of “Pets” with three sub categories named  “Cats,” “Dogs,” and “Birds.” If you wanted, you could then create additional Sub-Categories for individual breeds under “Dogs.”
  
• Description – A brief description of what the Category contains. Depending on your theme, this may or may not be displayed on your Category pages. This can be left blank if you would like.

On the right hand side of the WordPress Categories Dashboard, you’ll see a list of all the different Categories on your blog. Sub-Categories will be listed below their Parent, allowing to keep tabs on how you’ve organized them. When you place your mouse over each item, you’ll see options for “Edit,” “Quick Edit,” and “Delete.” The “Quick Edit” option allows you to change the Name and Slug, but not the Parent or Description.

Changing Categories Down The Road

You can edit your Categories at any time, even if you already have posts in that Category. If you have your permalinks set up to include the category, I’d recommend keeping the slug the same. If you change the slug (and it appears in your permalinks) make sure you test links to your posts from before the change.

If you decide you want to completely delete a Category that already has posts in it, that’s fine too. The posts themselves won’t be removed from your blog, they’ll just be moved to “Uncategorized” (Unless they were also listed under another Category, of course).

Whether you decide to create new Categories as you write your posts or create a structure in advance is really up to you. Either way, keeping your Categories as organized as possible will help your readers find more reasons to stay on your blog longer, which is always a good thing. If you have any questions about using Categories, drop them in the comments.

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Chad is the author of www.WelcomeToWordPress.com, a blog dedicated to helping you create and optimize your very own WordPress blog with articles, tips, and step-by-step video tutorials.