By default, WordPress gives you one category called ‘Uncategorized.’ Most WordPress users will probably want to change the name as they may want to put a different term according to what their site’s niche may be. So… how can you rename it? Well, it is not as difficult as you may think.
How To Rename the Uncategorized Category in WordPress
You will need to go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to the area Posts, and then select in the drop down, Categories. You should be able to see a list for categories. If your website is new, you may just have the ‘Uncategorized’ category. However over that category and underneath you can click to edit the term.
(Right click and open in a new window or tab in order to view the entire image.)
You will be able to see some areas in order to edit your category. Simply type the new name in the category name and then in lowercase letters, type the name you want as that categories slug. The slug is used in the permalink of your site’s address, especially if you are using the post name URL structure.
(Right click and open in a new window or tab in order to view the entire image.)
Click the submit button and your Uncategorized category will be renamed to what you wanted it to be. In the case that you have had your site for some time and already have traffic, make sure to place a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL so it is crawled and properly found by the search engines.
Have you renamed your Category named Uncategorized or did you keep it? If you kept the category the same default name, then why did you decide to?
Thanks for posting this information. It was very valuable! I think there is so much bloggers don’t know about WordPress that blogs such as yours can inform us about.
Mostly I just edit it as soon as I install the wordpress blog on the server. But I liked the idea of doing a 301 if the category has been there for sometime.
Hi NIle, thanks for sharing. I have been developing traditional websites for several years and now I am just starting with WordPress. One of the things that drive me crazy is the “Uncategorized” category. With your help I will name it “Avoid this” to remind myself that I must assign a category to every post 🙂
Hey Nile,
Nice post and Thanks for sharing this post with us. I really like this post and I think this post surely help all the newbies. I learned lots of good stuff after reading this post.
hello nile, thanks for this post. uncategorized category is a headache for me. but this tip was so simple i never thought about renaming it. thanks for this post
Remember to 301 the old category pages.
Oh Really it was this!!! 🙂
Well i always tried to remove it but wasn’t knowing and also i wasn’t having any option how to remove it.
But thanks a lot to your share, now i can use it with other name and also as my standard category.
keep sharing!!!
Hey Nile,
It’s a really Nice share, and many newbies require such kind of articles to help them get started with WordPress , You have done a really good job,
Your article and the style of writing is pretty impressive.
Well Nile..this uncategorized category is a thing which must seen by every blogger.Nice way to use it after changing its name.
Nice post and thanks for sharing this small but important information. I am doing as well as you are saying.
Thanks Nile !!!
Hi Nile,
This is a category I never understood why it exists on the 1st place.
I read here in the comments that it is important to have it, I am curious to learn why.
Thanks for sharing how to change it.
This can be very useful indeed now that I want to clean up my categories;)
Hi Patricia! The category exists just like the default page and post. This is to let new WordPress users know that the feature is for easier usage, and makes it easier when installing a new site. If you remove the first default post, your fresh install comes up with a no posts message and some people freak out. I have seen it and while laughable… apparently it is not for those who are new or not as Internet savvy. Posts have to have a category, so for a default first post, it is logical that some type of category is there.
Hii Nile..
Thanks for the tips rename the Uncategorized Category. I am new to wordpress so still do not understand about wordpress. 🙂
Hey Nile,
Thanks for sharing this article. You have solved my problem.I am new WordPress blogger. I don’t have much more information about WordPress. Trying to learn more thinks. Thanks.
Hi Nile.Uncategorized Category is by default.if you do not specify path for a new post it goes to un.cat..but i have created so many new cagtegories and now i want to remove this default category but found no option of delete..Now after reading this post i got the way.Nice share..
This is really great to rename the uncategorized category in wordpress. I was always want to rename this.
You have solved my problem.I am new WordPress blogger. I don’t have much more information about WordPress
hello nile
Thanks for sharing this article. You have solved my problem.I am new WordPress blogger. I don’t have much more information about WordPress. Trying to learn more thinks. Thanks
What I do is edit the post. I didn’t know there was a shortcut. Thanks for sharing.