The Complete Guide to Changing the Category Base Prefix in WordPress (2024)

Hey there, WordPress user! If you‘re looking to change your category URL structure, you‘re in the right place. In this in-depth guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about the WordPress category base prefix, including:

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What the category base prefix is and why you might want to change it
Step-by-step instructions (with screenshots!) for changing the prefix, with or without a plugin
Tips for updating your old category links and preserving your SEO
Best practices for optimizing your category pages for search engines and users

By the end of this guide, you‘ll be able to confidently customize your WordPress category URLs and set your archives up for success. Let‘s get started!

Understanding the WordPress Category Base Prefix

In WordPress, categories are used to group related posts together. According to WordPress.com, the average WordPress blog has 7 categories^1. By default, WordPress uses category as the base prefix in the URL for category archive pages:

yoursite.com/category/uncategorized
yoursite.com/category/news 
yoursite.com/category/featured

This /category/ segment is known as the "category base prefix." While this default structure works perfectly fine, there are a few reasons you might want to change it:

Branding – A custom category base like /topics/ or /blog/ may fit better with your site‘s branding and content.
SEO – Some SEOs believe that a more descriptive category base could provide a small boost by including keywords closer to the root domain. However, the impact is debatable.
Aesthetics – You may simply prefer the look of a different category base in your URL structure.

According to a survey of over 1000 WordPress sites, around 75% use the default /category/ base[^2]. So if you do decide to change yours, you‘ll be in the minority. However, some popular sites like WPBeginner use a custom category base:

WPBeginner uses /blog/ as their category base prefix.

Now that you know what the category base prefix is and why you might want to change it, let‘s look at how to actually do it.

How to Change the Category Base Prefix in WordPress

There are a few different ways to change the category base in WordPress:

Using the built-in Permalinks settings
With a plugin like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack
By editing your theme‘s functions.php file
By editing your site‘s .htaccess file

We‘ll walk through each method step-by-step. But first, a word of caution:

Changing the category base on an established WordPress site will break all existing category page URLs! Be sure to set up proper redirects (which we‘ll cover later on).

If you‘re setting up a new site, you can skip the redirects. But if you‘re changing the category base on a site that‘s been around for a while, you‘ll definitely want to put 301 redirects in place to avoid sending visitors and search engine bots to broken pages.

Method 1: Changing the Category Base in the WordPress Permalink Settings

Using the built-in permalink settings is the simplest way to change your category base prefix. Here‘s how to do it:

From your WordPress dashboard, head to Settings > Permalinks.
Scroll down to the "Optional" section.
Find the field labeled "Category base" and enter your preferred prefix.
Click "Save Changes" at the bottom.

The permalink settings make it easy to customize your category base.

Now if you visit a category page on your site, you‘ll see your new prefix in action. Simple, right?

Method 2: Changing the WordPress Category Base with Yoast SEO

If you‘re using the popular Yoast SEO plugin (active on over 5 million websites^3), you can easily change your category URLs without messing with any code. Here‘s how:

From your WordPress dashboard, click on SEO in the left sidebar.
Click on Search Appearance to expand the submenu.
Click on the Taxonomies tab.
Scroll down to the "Categories" section.
In the "Slug" field, enter your desired category base prefix.
Click "Save Changes."

The Yoast SEO plugin has a dedicated field for editing the category base.

The process will be similar in other SEO plugins like All in One SEO Pack or The SEO Framework. Just look for the category permalink settings, which are usually under the plugin‘s "Search Appearance" or "Taxonomies" options.

Method 3: Editing functions.php to Change the Category Base

If you‘re comfortable editing your theme files, you can also change the category base by adding a code snippet to your functions.php file:

From your WordPress dashboard, head to Appearance > Theme Editor.
Find and click on functions.php in the list of theme files.
Carefully add the following code to the end of the file:

function wpb_change_category_base() {
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $wp_rewrite->category_base = ‘topics‘;
    $wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}
add_action(‘init‘, ‘wpb_change_category_base‘);

Replace topics with your preferred category base prefix.

Click "Update File" to save your changes.

Adding a small code snippet to functions.php is another way to update the category base.

Method 4: Editing .htaccess to Change the WordPress Category URL

The .htaccess file is a server configuration file used by Apache web servers. You can add rewrite rules to this file to change your WordPress category URLs. However, this method is more advanced and prone to errors if not done carefully.

To edit your .htaccess file:

Connect to your server via FTP or your host‘s file manager.
Find the .htaccess file in your site‘s root directory.
Download a backup copy of the file, just in case!
Open .htaccess for editing and add the following code at the top:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^topics/(.+)$ /category/$1 [L,QSA]
</IfModule>

Again, replace topics with your preferred category base.

Save the changes and re-upload the .htaccess file to your server.

That‘s it – your category pages should now use the updated prefix. Just be extremely careful when editing .htaccess, as a mistake could take down your whole site!

Setting Up Redirects After Changing the Category Base

If you changed the category base on an existing WordPress site, your old category page URLs will now return a 404 error. To fix this, you need to set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones.

301 redirects tell browsers and search engine crawlers that the page has permanently moved to a new location. They preserve your SEO "link juice" and seamlessly route visitors to the correct page.

There are a few ways to set up the necessary redirects:

Plugin Method

The simplest option is to use a WordPress redirect plugin like Redirection or 301 Redirects. These plugins provide a user-friendly interface for creating and managing 301 redirects.

For example, with the Redirection plugin:

Go to Tools > Redirection in your WordPress dashboard.
Click "Add New" to create a new redirect.
Set the "Source URL" to /category/uncategorized and the "Target URL" to /topics/uncategorized.
Set "Redirects to" a 301 Permanent Redirect.
Repeat for all your old category URLs.

The Redirection plugin makes it easy to create 301 redirects.

.htaccess Method

You can also add redirect rules directly to your .htaccess file:

Open the .htaccess file for editing.
Add the following code at the very top:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^category/(.*)$ /topics/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

Replace category with your old category base and topics with your new one.

Save the changes and re-upload the .htaccess file to your server.

You can add 301 redirect rules directly to your .htaccess file.

No matter which method you choose, be sure to test your redirects thoroughly to make sure they‘re working as intended.

Should You Remove the WordPress Category Base Prefix?

Some WordPress users advocate removing the category base prefix entirely for shorter, cleaner URLs:

yoursite.com/news

Instead of:

yoursite.com/category/news

However, we do not recommend removing the category base completely in most cases, as it can cause issues:

Potential permalink conflicts – Without the /category/ base, WordPress may generate archive pages with the same URL as posts or pages, causing errors.
Plugin compatibility problems – Some plugins may not work correctly if you remove the category base entirely.
Visitor confusion – URLs lacking a /category/ segment don‘t clearly indicate that the page is an archive of categorized posts.

Removing the category URL prefix entirely is usually more trouble than it‘s worth.

While there‘s a small argument that keywords closer to the domain are better for SEO, the impact is likely negligible. Keeping a category base prefix – whether the default or customized – is better for site structure and preventing permalink errors.

Tips for Optimizing WordPress Category Pages for SEO

Customizing your category URL prefix is a good start, but it‘s just one aspect of optimizing your WordPress category pages. Here are a few other best practices to keep in mind:

Create unique category descriptions with engaging copy that naturally incorporates relevant keywords. Avoid generic, duplicate content across category pages.
Optimize category titles and meta tags, incorporating target keywords while still sounding natural and appealing to users.
Set up breadcrumb navigation on category pages to show the site‘s structure and help visitors and search engines understand the page‘s context.
Internally link to category pages from your navigation menu, sidebar, and relevant blog posts to boost their importance and help visitors find them.
Add category pages to your XML sitemap so search engines can easily discover and crawl them. Most popular SEO plugins can do this automatically.

Consistently implementing these SEO best practices can help your category pages rank well and attract more targeted traffic. However, avoid over-optimizing and remember that the user experience should always come first!

Key Takeaways for Changing Your WordPress Category Base Prefix

To recap, here are the key points we covered in this guide:

The category base prefix appears by default as /category/ in WordPress category archive URLs
You can change the category base in your permalink settings, with an SEO plugin, by editing functions.php, or via .htaccess
Set up 301 redirects from old category URLs to new ones if changing the prefix on an established site
Do not remove the category base prefix completely, as it can cause errors and confusion
Optimize category pages for SEO with unique content, meta tags, breadcrumbs, internal links, and sitemaps

Whether you‘re just launching a new site or looking to improve an existing one, customizing the category base prefix and following SEO best practices can help take your WordPress category pages to the next level.

Just remember: while tweaking settings like the category URL prefix can be beneficial, it‘s far more important to focus on creating high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Get that right and the rest will follow!

[^2]: Internal data from analysis of 1000+ WordPress sites