How To Organize Blog Posts Into Categories Wordpress

Categories provide a helpful way to group related posts together. Depending on the theme and widgets you have activated, categories can be used in the following places:

On your menu to organize your posts into category pages, to display posts by category.
On specific pages using the Blog Posts block.
In the available sidebars or widget areas.

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Adding Categories

Go to My Site → Posts.
Click on Categories.

Adding a new category through the Site Settings section of your account allows you to include a category description and select the option to nest a new category below a Top level Category.

When adding a new Category, there is a toggle at the bottom to set it as the Top level Category.

Selecting a parent category will insert the new category under the Top level category.

When adding a new Category, disable the Top Level Category toggle to set it as a sub-category.

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Assigning Default Category

All posts must be assigned a category. By default, the category is Uncategorized. You can change the default category through My Site → Posts → Categories.

Next to each category is 3 dots. Click there to Set as default from the menu that pops up. Set as default is the last option. — Changing the default Category.

While it is not possible to delete the "Uncategorized" Category, you can rename it to whatever you want.

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Assigning Posts to Categories

Categories can only be added to Posts, but not Pages. If you want to nest pages under other pages, use Page Attributes → Parent Page in Post Settings for that page. We have more details on Page Attributes here.

Go to My Sites → Posts
Click on the post you want to assign to a category.
Under Post Settings on the right, expand the Category option.
Click the checkbox next to the category you want the post to be assigned to and publish your changes

You can select multiple categories for a single post to show in. You should not add more than five to 15 categories and tags to a post.

You can remove a post from a category by unchecking the box next to the category name.

The Categories section from the post editor will display existing categories to check off, or you can use the search field just above the list. It has an Add New Category button at the bottom.

New Category from Within A Post

It is possible to quickly add a new category through the post's Post Settings by clicking on Add New Category.

You will be able to give the category a name and select a parent category.

If you want to add a description to the Category you will want to go to My Site → Posts → Categories and edit the new category.

Add New Category is a button at the bottom of the category list in the post editor. Once clicked, it shows text fields for the New Category Name and the Parent Category if applicable.

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Category Pages and Menus

A category page will display only the blog posts in the category that you designate. You can add these dynamic category pages to your menu.

Once a category has been assigned to the post, and the post is published, edit the navigation menu to add the category page:

Open theCustomizer. (My Site(s) → Appearance → Customize)
Go toMenus.
Select the menu to edit.
Click onAdd Items.
SelectCategories.
Click the Plus icon next to the Category you want to add.
Click Publish to save the changes.

When Add Items is clicked from the Menus area, Categories has its own section to add from. — Adding a Category Menu

If you have added a Category Page to your site's menu but do not see any posts on the Category Page, or a message that says the content can't be found, this means no posts have been assigned to that category. Once you add posts to the category they will automatically show on the Category Page.

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Edit or Delete Categories

To edit or delete a category, go to My Site → Posts → Categories. Hover your mouse over any category name and the following options will appear:

Edit: Change the name, parent category, and description of a category.
Quick Edit: Quickly update the name of a category.
Delete: Delete the category. This removes the category from your site but does not delete any posts which had that category.
View: Visit the category page as your visitors would see it.

Hover the mouse over a category to reveal options for Edit, Quick Edit, Delete, and View. — Hover your mouse over a category to reveal the options

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Topics Listings

Your posts will appear in the topics listings of any tags or categories you use. Therefore, assigning tags and categories to your post increases the chance that other WordPress.com users will see your content.

However, you don't want irrelevant content showing up on the topics listings or search, and neither do we. That's why we limit the number of tags and categories that can be used on a public topic listing. Five to 15 tags (or categories, or a combination of the two) is a good number to add to each of your posts.The more categories you use, the less likely it is that your post will be selected for inclusion in the topics listings.Learn more about Topics here.

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Bulk Actions

You can also edit your categories in bulk by going to My Site(s) → Posts → Categories.

To bulk delete any categories, check all categories you want to be deleted, and in the "Bulk Actions" dropdown above the list, select "Delete", then click the "Apply" button.

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Find the Category ID

You can find the category ID for a category by going to My Site(s) → Posts → Categories.

Scroll over the category that you need a category ID number for, and click the Edit link that appears under the category. You will be taken to the Edit Categories page.

Then, the Category ID for that category is visible in the page URL, after tag-ID:

In the URL, the numbers after "&tag_ID=" are highlighted to show the Category ID.

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Frequently Asked Questions

My Category Page says Nothing Found!

If you have added a Category Page to your Menu, and you see a not found, or nothing found, page when you view it, this means there are no posts assigned to that category.

Once you add a post to that category it will automatically show on your Category Page.