In this text and video Quick Guide, we’ll show you how to change your WordPress default category from “Uncategorized” to something custom!

Why You’d Want to Change Your WordPress Default Category

Categories are a type of default WordPress taxonomy that helps users organize their posts. You might have noticed that WordPress, by default, automatically categorizes your new posts as “Uncategorized.” This forces you to manually select your desired category before you publish anything new. It’s a small extra step, but it can easily lead to a majorly disorganized site if you frequently forget to set your post categories.

Fortunately, changing from “Uncategorized” to anything else—even something plain and all-encompassing like “News”—is pretty simple. Here’s a video guide:

And here, in writing, is how I was able to change the default WordPress category from “Uncategorized” to a category called “Coffee 203” on my website Low Key Coffee Snobs.

6 Steps to Set Your Default Category in WordPress

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
   

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2. Select “Posts” >”Categories” from your left side bar menu.
3. Add a new category that you would like to make your default category moving forward.
   

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4. Select “Writing” > “Settings” from the left hand side bar menu.
   

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5. Change the Default Post Category from “Uncategorized” to “New Category” using the drop down menu.
   

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6. Click “Save Changes” and that’s it! Your new posts will automatically be set to publish under your new category.
   

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Changing Your Default Category in WordPress Isn’t Too Hard

When you follow the above steps , you’ll be able to set your WordPress default category from “Uncategorized” to a much broader, customized selection.

Why does this matter? Beyond the fact that scrolling through a bunch of posts that say “Uncategorized” is kind of an awkward experience for your users, having a tight, strategic plan for helping them navigate through your site—even through page tags—will improve their satisfaction and your site’s crawl-ability by search engines. These are both essential elements to succeeding as a website today!