How to Change the Default Category in WordPress

How to Change the Default Category in WordPress

Last modified: May 12, 2022

FAQ
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To help users find the content that they want and to organize your website, WordPress uses categories. This gives your site a taxonomical structure that is perfect for numerous purposes. Every post needs to have at least one category when published. By default, this is often ‘Uncategorized’. However, there are ways to change this. So we detail here how to change the default category in WordPress.

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How to Change WordPress Default Category

There are two different approaches to changing the default category in WordPress. The first is to set a new WordPress category on the website. The other option is to rename the default ‘uncategorized’ option.

Set a New WordPress Default Category

The first option allows you to set a new category, so you can keep the uncategorized option when you need it if you ever do. Or you can just delete the uncategorized option, but to do this, you will first need to set a new default option.

Step 1: Dashboard

The first thing to do is to sign in to your website.

Step 2: Categories

Now you need to click on the ‘Posts’ options and then ‘Categories’ options.

Step 3: New Category

Now you need to add a new category (if necessary) that you would like to make the default option. Save the category when you’re done.

Step 4: Writing

Now go to the ‘Settings’ options in the dashboard and select ‘Writing’ in the list.

Step 5: Select Default

Now you can set the default post category on the page. You can save this when you’ve made the change.

Step 6: Delete Uncategorized

Once you’ve done this you can go back to your ‘Posts’ and the ‘Categories’ page and then delete the ‘uncategorized’ option on the page. Any posts that are assigned to this should be automatically moved to the new default option.

Any new posts that are added now will be automatically added to your default category.

Rename the Uncategorized Category

If you don’t want to create a new default category, you could just rename ‘uncategorized’ for your website.

To do this, all you need to do is to go to the dashboard, ‘posts’ and then the ‘categories’ page. Then you need to find the ‘uncategorized’ option and then click on the ‘Edit’ option. This allows you to change the name and slug of the category for your website.

Remember that if you’re changing the slug of the category, then you can have 404 errors that can appear on your website. You might need to add a 301 redirect to your website to ensure that any existing links are redirected to your website.

Final Word: How to Change the Default Category in WordPress

Above are the simple instructions on how to change the default category in WordPress. It is simple and easy to do. No plugin is necessary, but you might need to add a plugin for 301 redirects if you’ve got published content already.

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