Summary
Master the art of WordPress content organization: create a new category to enhance your website's structure and user experience.
Adding a category in WordPress is a straightforward process that enhances the organization of your content. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a new category:
Step 1: Log in
Log into your WordPress dashboard
Step 2: Go to Add New Category Page
Hover over Posts on the menu, then select Categories from the submenu. This will take you to the Categories page.
Step 3: Add a New Category
The Add New Category form is on the left side of this page (or at the top on mobile). Adding a new category only requires filling out the name field. WordPress will auto-create everything else from there. If you want to fill out the rest, here are the details for each field.
- Name: The name of the category. Themes use this value when they display the name of the category.
- Slug (Optional): The “slug” is the URL-friendly version of the category name. Entering something here overrides the auto-generated slug.
- Parent Category (Optional): When using a hierarchical category structure, choose a parent category to nest this category under. This is optional and depends on your site’s organization.
- Description (Optional): Provides more information about the category. Themes may use this on category pages.
- Category Image (Optional): Some themes and plugins support category images. If applicable, upload or change a category image.
- Category Display Type (Theme-specific): Some themes offer different ways to display categories. If your theme has specific options for category display, configure them in this section.
Step 4: Save the new category
Once you’ve filled in the necessary details, click on the “Add New Category” button. This action will create your new category.
Bonus Method for creating a new category
While the above steps are the typical way of creating a new category, there’s another way! Each post has a Categories metabox where you can manage categories assigned to that post. However, you can also create new categories there too!
- Click the link labeled “Add New Category” at the bottom of the metabox
- Enter the category name in the “NEW CATEGORY NAME” field
- Optionally, select the Parent Category
- Click the Save button
This creates a new category and assigns it to the post.