How to Remove the Category Base From WordPress

Having a category base in your post permalink can make the URL longer and does not serve any purpose. And in this knowledegbase article, we will look at why you should consider removing the category base from your permalinks and how Rank Math can make it easier to remove the category base from your WordPress site.

Why Should You Consider Removing the Category Base?

Removing the category base from your post URL can be effective for two reasons:

1. For Search Results

Using a longer URL can confuse search engines on understanding the main topic of the page.

2. Easier to Remember

A shorter URL can be easier to remember and can give your readers a better user experience as well.

Removing the Category Base from URLs

Note: Before you remove the category base, ensure that your categories don’t have the same slug as your posts/pages/products have, as it might cause unexpected results.

Let’s get started with removing the category base to make your URLs shorter:

1 Install Rank Math

The very first step, if you haven’t already – is to install & setup Rank Math.

2 Enable The “Strip Category Base” Setting

You can locate the Strip Category Base Option in Rank Math > General > Settings > Links.

1. The Strip Category Base option will basically remove the category names on the post URLs. This will result in cleaner URLs and redirect them without causing 404 errors.

2. The Links Strip Category Base option will only affect post categories. If you enable this option, Rank Math will strip the “category” part of the URL and make the URL shorter. For example, if you have a post with a URL as:

https://yourwebsite.com/SEO/best-seo-plugin

By enabling the Strip Category Base option the URL will look like:

https://yourwebsite.com/best-seo-plugin

If you like shorter URLs, then enable this option. However, there is no guarantee that removing the category from the URL will improve your rankings.

And, that’s it! We hope this tutorial was helpful in removing the category base from post URLs and if you still have any questions, feel free to reach our support team who are available 24×7 and are always more than happy to help.