sandywp / plugins / remove-category-url
Remove Category URL
Remove 'category' base from category permalinks
Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.
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v1.2.4 40,000+ installs WP 3.1+
About this plugin
Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.
Just activate, and you’re done. No configuration needed.
Features
- Creates cleaner URLs like
mydomain.com/my-category/andmydomain.com/my-category/my-post/ - Works out of the box with no settings to configure
- Supports multiple sub-categories
- Automatically 301 redirects old category URLs to the new structure (SEO-friendly)
- Sitemaps are automatically updated with the new URLs after activation
- Compatible with WordPress Multisite, WPML, and popular sitemap plugins
Why remove /category/ from URLs?
The /category/ base in WordPress URLs is there by default, but it doesn’t help your visitors or search engines understand your content any better. When you remove /category/ from URLs, you get cleaner paths like mydomain.com/news/ instead of mydomain.com/category/news/. They’re shorter, easier to remember and share, and more consistent with how your pages are already structured.
Shorter URLs also tend to look better in search results and make your site feel more polished overall. Removing the category base is a small change that makes your whole URL structure cleaner.
Support
We’re here to help. Feel free to open a new thread on the Support Forum.
Useful Resources
- If you like this plugin, you’re sure to love our other plugins as well.
- Our blog is a great place to learn more about WordPress.
- Get the most out of your website with our helpful WordPress YouTube Tutorials.
Questions
- Will this break my existing links?
No. The plugin automatically redirects your old category URLs to the new shorter ones using 301 redirects. So if someone visits
mydomain.com/category/my-category/, they’ll be seamlessly redirected tomydomain.com/my-category/.- What happens if a page or other content has the same slug as a category?
The category will take priority. So if you have both a category and a page with the slug travel, visiting
mydomain.com/travel/will load the category archive, not the page. To avoid conflicts, make sure your categories don’t share slugs with pages, posts, or other content on your site.- Does this remove the base from other taxonomies like WooCommerce product categories?
No, this plugin only affects the built-in WordPress category taxonomy. For WooCommerce, you’d need a different solution.
- What happens if I deactivate the plugin?
If you deactivate the plugin, your category URLs will revert to the default WordPress structure with
/category/in the path.If you only deactivate the plugin without uninstalling it, you will need to flush permalinks manually. You can do this by going to Settings > Permalinks and clicking Save Changes.
If you uninstall the plugin, permalinks are flushed automatically.
Note that after deactivation, links pointing to the shortened URLs will no longer work unless you set up your own redirects.
- I uninstalled the plugin, but /category/ didn’t come back. Why?
You’ll need to manually refresh your permalinks. Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes. This will restore the default
/category/base.
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