Take control of WordPress categories: delete categories without worry, SEO without dropping links

Users can WordPress manage website content on demand.Categoriesis an important feature of WordPress that helps you to categorize and organize your content according to different themes.

However, when deleting a category, you may have questions:"And what happens to the posts under that category?"

Deleting a category does not delete the posts in it. But deleting categories may affect yourSite structure, Link,SEO and user experience. This article will detail the implications when deleting a category and provide steps to properly delete a category and some tips to avoid problems.

Impact of Removing Categories in WordPress

The most common misconception when deleting categories is that theDeleting a category will cause all posts under that category to be deleted as well. Actually, WordPress does not delete the content in a category when you delete it. Here are a few key points to keep in mind when deleting a category:

Posts were re-categorized or changed toUncategorized

When a category is deleted, all posts belonging to that category will not be deleted. They will be re-categorized. If the posts belong to more than one category, the deleted category will be removed from those posts and the other categories will remain unchanged.For example, if an article belongs to category A and category B, when you delete category A, the article will belong to category B only.

If your posts only belong to the category you deleted, WordPress will automatically assign those posts to the "Uncategorized" category. "Uncategorized" is a default category in WordPress and cannot be deleted, but you can rename it to suit your site's needs.

disaggregatedinternal link

WordPress automatically creates URLs for each category. e.g., a category page might generate a URL like example.com/category/your-category-name links to the category. If the category is removed, WordPress removes all default links pointing to that category (e.g. the list of categories displayed at the top of the post).

But if you manually add a link to that category in a post, menu or widget, then these links will not be automatically removed or updated. As a result, these manually added links will point to pages that don't exist, causing the 404 ErrorThe

To fix this, before removing a category, check all links on your site that point to that category, especially links in pages, posts, navigation menus, and widgets, to make sure they don't result in dead links or 404 errors.

Links to posts within categories

If your WordPress site uses category based customizationPermanent linkstructures (e.g.example.com/category/post-name), when you delete a category, all posts in that category will be re-categorized and their URLs will change. For example, a post that was originally in the "News" category example.com/news/post-name will become example.com/uncategorized/post-name(if the new category is not set manually). If redirection is not set, the original URL will return a 404 error, resulting in a broken link.

(Back) Linking to this category results in a 404 page

Not only internal links, but links from external sites that point to a category on your site can also cause a 404 error. If the category page previously received traffic in Google or other search engines, when you remove the category, the search engine index will not be updated immediately, and users will see a 404 page when they click on these links. To avoid this, you can set the 301 RedirectIf a category is deleted, the URL of the deleted category is permanently redirected to the relevant page or to another category.

Steps to perform before deleting a category page

Before deleting a category in WordPress, to avoid destroying the structure of the site,SEO respond in singinguser experience, the following steps can be followed:

1. Check if there are any posts using this category

Before deleting a category, make sure you have checked all the posts that use that category and reassign them to other relevant categories. This can be done by going to "card > form" and see which posts fall into the categories to be deleted. Make sure these posts are not missed and re-categorized.

2. Find a link to the category

Before deleting a category, you can find all of the site'sLinks to this category. In addition to the automatically generated category page links, all links manually added in menus, sidebars, widgets, pages and posts are included. These links can be checked manually, or by using an SEO plugin like Broken Link Checker) to make sure there are no links to deleted categories.

3. Setting up 301 redirects

To prevent users and search engines from visiting 404 pages due to broken links, it is recommended to set up a 301 redirect for deleted category pages.A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that informs search engines that the page has moved to a new location. This can be done using WordPress plug-in (software component)(e.g. Redirection maybe 301 Redirects) to easily set up redirection.

Steps to set up a 301 redirect:

1. Find the URL of the deleted category.
2. Install and activate the 301 Redirection plugin.
3. On the plugin settings page, addRedirection from the URL of a deleted category to a related page or categoryThe

4. Checking broken links

Even with good preparation before deleting a category, there may be missing links. To make sure everything is in order, use a broken link checker tool (such as the Broken Link Checker) Scanning the site to find anydead linkand fix them in a timely manner.

How to Remove WordPress Categories the Right Way

The steps to remove WordPress categories correctly are very simple, just follow the process below:

1. Log in to the WordPress dashboard.
2. Go to "card > form".
3. Find the category you want to delete, hover over the category and click "removing".

4. Make sure that you have followed the steps above to reassign all relevant posts and that you have dealt with all the links pointing to the category.

After deleting a category, WordPress automatically reassigns posts related to that category to the "Uncategorized" category, the posts can be further organized as needed.

summarize

Removing categories in WordPress is a simple operation, but it can affect site structure, user experience, and SEO, and if you're not prepared for it, you may experience issues such as broken links, SEO drops, and 404 errors. By following the steps provided in this article, you can ensure that the process of deleting categories won't break your site's structure or affect user experience.