How To Remove Categories URL Prefix in WordPress

Are you having a hard time removing the category base URL prefix in WordPress but it’s not working or giving redirect issues? By removing the /category/ URL prefix, it will turn the category page into SEO-friendly URLs that will improve site ranking and it’s good for SEO too. There is a simple way to remove the category base without any hassle or installing category base removal plugins.

This guide will give an idea on how to remove the category base URL using the Yoast SEO plugin.

/category/wordpress-tips/ to /wordpress-tips/

This is a very straight forward method to remove the WordPress category base URL prefix easily and only required to install the Yoast SEO plugin. Hitting two birds with one stone, Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress is good for website search engine optimization and search engine ranking. It also has the feature to remove the category base URL.

I decided to remove the FV Top Level Categories to minimize my plugins usage and instead use the Yoast SEO Category URLs feature. Let’s get started on how to remove the category base URL with this easy guide below.

Step 1

Your category URL will look like this e.g /category/wordpress-tips/ which is actually not URL friendly. Now you want to remove it and make it appeared as /wordpress-tips/ which look great for SEO. First, install the Yoast SEO, the free and premium version have this feature. If you already have the SEO plugin installed, find out how to remove the categories URL prefix in the next step.

Step 2

Go to SEO > Search Appearance and scroll down to the bottom to find the Category URLs. Select Remove to remove the categories prefix and click Save.

Step 3

Head to your website and check on the category page, the /category/ is be removed. In case it’s still there, you can clear the cache if using cache plugins or go to Settings > Permalinks and save changes.

With these simple steps, you don’t need to install any plugins to remove the category base URL. Now you can proceed to optimize your website category for SEO and the URL now look nicer without /category/.

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