How to Add and Delete Category in WordPress (2026)

Do you need help to add and delete category in WordPress? Are you trying to classify a WordPres post using a category but don’t know how to?

WordPress beginners are often unaware of awesome features and the full power of WordPress. As a beginner you might have heard of category, tags and other taxonomy terms but you’re unaware of their proper use and benefits.

Category is a powerful tool to organize your content and maintain the proper structure of your site in a semantic manner. It is very useful interms of dividing your website into the section for the website that publishes content on different topics. It also helps web traffic to choose the content of your site. Bloggers often use categories to systematically organize content according to user preference.

In this article, we are going to learn how to add, edit, and delete categories in WordPress. We’ll also cover how to change and display categories in WordPress

What is Category?

Category is a taxonomy used to organize content in WordPress. It is a hierarchical way of grouping similar content in WordPress. It also enables visitors to navigate around the website easily and provides a better user experience. In other words, category helps to determine the flow of content. Also, WordPress categories and tags are two different things but both are used to organize content.

Let’s take a look at examples in a real-world scenario: an e-commerce website can have categories upon Clothes, Electronics, Shoes and Notices. They can have subcategories upon Men’s clothing, Women Clothing, Child Clothing and so on.

Let’s start:

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Add Category in WordPress

It is extremely easy to add, edit, and delete categories in WordPress. The first thing you need to do to add a category is log in to your WordPress admin panel. WordPress allows you to add categories in two ways.

The first way of adding a category is from the post-editing screen in the WordPress dashboard. This is a direct and easy method suitable for beginners.

• Navigate to the post-edit screen by clicking a post tab.
• Click on the document tab present on the right-hand side and go to the category meta box.

Note: In case you are using a classic editor, you can see the category meta box present on the right side below the update button. However, we recommend you use the Gutenberg editor.

Check out the WordPress Gutenberg Guide For Beginners to learn more about it.

• Click on the add new category link.
• Type the category name in the box.
• Then, click on the add new category button.

Now, your post is properly categorized.

Another way to add categories in WordPress is from the category screen. This method is the easiest way for adding WordPress category. It is usually effective for adding and managing all categories at once. So if you’re just customizing your wordPress site then this method is for you.

• First of all, navigate to the Posts → Categories.
• Type the name, slug, and description in the box.

Note: The slug is the name you choose for a link to the category that appears in small letters in the URL. If you’re unsure about the slug, then just leave it blank. WordPress will add the category name as a slug.

• You can also create a parent and child category in WordPress. Choose a parent category from the drop-down option to make a child category under that parent category as you like.
• Then, click on the add new categories button to save the changes.  

Display Categories in WordPress

WordPress displays categories in WordPress either in the navigation menu or the widgets by default. Category widget is the best way to display categories generally in the sidebar.

• First of all, navigate to Appearance → Widgets.
• Then drag and drop categories to the sidebar.
• Customize the title and check the checkbox to display the category as a dropdown, show post counts, and show hierarchy for a nested category.
• Click on the save button to save changes.

Edit WordPress Categories

In order to edit WordPress categories, you need to navigate to Posts>>Categories. Next simply hover over the WordPress category to edit it. Then, click on the edit option displayed below the category name. Then you can easily edit categories or change their slugs or descriptions.

Most bloggers do not add descriptions to their categories, as it is not mandatory. Also, it is recommended to add a short slug of the category, which is often the same as the category name itself.

Delete Categories in WordPress

“How to delete categories in WordPress” is one of the most frequently asked questions of us.

You can delete a WordPress category in WordPress from Posts → Categories. All you have to do is hover over the WordPress category you want to delete. Then, click on delete. This is also an easy method to bulk delete a category from the WordPress dashboard.

If you’re wondering if deleting a category will delete its posts, don’t worry. Deleting a category doesn’t delete the post categorized under it. In fact, all of the posts listed in that category will automatically be listed as uncategorized by default. So you do not need to worry about losing the published posts.

That’s it! You’ve successfully added a category in WordPress.

Change Category in WordPress

Let’s say you want to add a category to the menu of your site but the name of the category is a bit too long and you want to change it. So how would you change a category in WordPress?

One way to do that is to create a new category and add all posts to that category. It might work if your website has few posts. However, if you’ve hundreds of post on your site, then adding categories to each post can be very time-consuming.

Renaming a WordPress category is not that difficult as it sounds. All you have to do is change the name of the existing category to a new one. Doing so will only change the category name and all the posts categorized under it will remain the same. The job is done. You need to do nothing else.

When you change the category name, WordPress saves pages on the same category ID number. Hence, changing the category or renaming the category won’t result in a page not found problem, as WordPress redirects the visitors to the right posts automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Thus, this is how to add a category in WordPress. You can successfully add, edit and delete categories in WordPress by following the above-described method. Hopefully, you find this article helpful.

In another tutorial, I’ll be covering complete guide on how to add tags in WordPress.

Still confused? If you have any questions or need WordPress expert help, contact us on Facebook. You can also ask in the comments below.