How to Add and Manage Categories in WordPress

As your WordPress blog grows, you will need to take a few extra steps to plan it in such a way that your readers don’t have to keep scrolling down the page or through archived content to find the articles they want. WordPress includes a categories feature which allows you to organize all of your posts into categories to help people narrow down their search. Categories are an alternative to tag clouds, although there is nothing stopping you from using both on your website. In addition to your categories, it is also advisable to have a search function on your homepage. Adding, deleting and managing categories in WordPress does not require the installation of any plugins.

1 – Adding, Deleting and Editing Categories

Newer versions of WordPress provide a range of features which allow you to manage categories and subcategories. For larger blogs which have grown to hundreds of posts in size, creating categories and subcategories will make it much easier to manage your content.

1. Log in to your WordPress administrator dashboard and open the Posts section from the sidebar. Click “Categories” to open up the category management page.
2. To add a new category, simply enter a name and a URL-friendly version of the name in the “Slug” text box. This should contain only lowercase letters and hyphens instead of spaces. You may also want to enter a description for the category.
3. If you are creating a subcategory in a category which you have already created, choose the parent category from the drop-down box beneath “Parent”.
4. Click “Add New Category” to save your changes.
5. To edit or delete categories or subcategories, simply mouse over the item in the column to the right and click the appropriate link.

2 – Categorizing Your Posts

You will need to go back and categorize posts which were published before you created the categories. In the future, you can easily choose a category for new posts before publishing them.

1. Return to the Posts section by clicking “Posts” in the sidebar.
2. Mouse over the post you want to change the category for and click “Edit”.
3. Choose the category you want from the Categories box to the right. You can choose multiple categories for a single post if you wish.
4. Click “Update” to save your changes.

3 – Using the Categories Widget

The categories widget allows you to place a list of categories on your blog itself so that readers can more easily find the content that they are interested in.

1. Open the Appearance page from the sidebar on the administrator dashboard and click on “Widgets”.
2. If the Categories widget is not already listed in the column to the right, you will need to activate it by dragging it over from the column on the left. Drag it to the widget area where you want it to appear on your blog. The available widget areas will vary depending on your chosen theme.
3. You can customize the categories widget by clicking on it in the widget area to the right. Specify a title and choose your preferred settings by checking the appropriate boxes. Click “Save” to save your changes.