Do you want to take your WordPress categories to the next level by converting them into custom taxonomies? While categories are an essential default taxonomy in WordPress, custom taxonomies offer you a higher degree of control and organization. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of seamlessly transforming your WordPress categories into custom taxonomies.
**Why and When Should You Convert Categories into Custom Taxonomies?**
In WordPress, taxonomies serve as a method to group your posts and custom post types. By default, WordPress provides two primary taxonomies: categories and tags. However, you have the flexibility to create custom taxonomies tailored to your specific needs, whether it’s for existing or custom post types. As your WordPress website or blog expands, you might find it challenging to manage and navigate within categories, particularly if they contain numerous subcategories. Custom taxonomies offer a solution by enabling you to establish more precise and detailed content classifications, resulting in enhanced organization.
For instance, imagine you’re running a recipe website. Creating categories for cuisine types, dietary restrictions, and meal types within the “Recipes” section could get confusing. However, by introducing custom taxonomies for each of these topics, you can simplify content management and enhance user navigation. Additionally, custom taxonomies can be a boon for your SEO efforts, allowing you to use more targeted and specific terms for content classification.
Now that you understand the benefits, let’s delve into how you can convert your WordPress categories into custom taxonomies.
**How to Convert WordPress Categories to Custom Taxonomies**
1. **Install and Activate the Taxonomy Switcher Plugin:** Start by installing and activating the “Taxonomy Switcher” plugin. If you’re unfamiliar with the plugin installation process, refer to our step-by-step guide on installing WordPress plugins.
2. **Access the Taxonomy Switcher Page:** Once activated, navigate to the “Tools » Taxonomy Switcher” page in your WordPress admin sidebar. This page is where you’ll perform the conversion.
3. **Select the Taxonomies:** On this page, you’ll first choose ‘Categories’ from the ‘Taxonomy to switch from’ dropdown menu, indicating that you want to convert a category into a custom taxonomy.
4. **Choose the Custom Taxonomy:** Next, pick the custom taxonomy to which you want the categories to convert from the ‘Taxonomy to switch to’ dropdown menu. If you’re unsure about creating a custom taxonomy, consult our tutorial on creating one in WordPress.
5. **Decide on the Conversion Scope:** You have the option to convert all categories on your site to the specified custom taxonomy by clicking ‘Switch Taxonomies.’ Alternatively, if you only want to convert specific categories or multiple categories, input the IDs of those categories in the ‘Comma separated list of term ids to switch’ field. To find a category ID, go to the “Posts » Categories” page in the WordPress dashboard, hover over the desired category, and locate the number after ‘category&tag_ID=’ and before ‘&post_type’ in the URL. Detailed instructions can be found in our tutorial on finding category IDs in WordPress.
6. **Handle Subcategories (Optional):** Some WordPress categories have subcategories (child categories). If you want to skip converting the child categories and only convert the parent category, enter the parent category next to the ‘Limit taxonomy switch for child terms of a specific parent’ option.
7. **Execute the Conversion:** Finally, click the ‘Switch Taxonomy’ button to initiate the conversion process. The newly created taxonomy will now appear in the “Posts” menu tab on the WordPress sidebar. Clicking on the custom taxonomy will lead you to a new page where you can effortlessly add terms by providing a name and slug. After this step, click the ‘Add New’ button at the bottom to create a new term for the taxonomy.
8. **Utilize the New Taxonomy:** Open a new or existing post/page in the WordPress block editor, and you’ll notice that the category you converted into a taxonomy is displayed in the block panel on the right corner of the screen. You can now add new terms or use existing ones for your WordPress content.
**Setting Up Redirects From Category to Custom Taxonomy**
After converting a category into a custom taxonomy, the category archive page may display a 404 error, especially if your website is not live yet. However, if your site is live, search engines may have already crawled and indexed your category pages. This could result in users encountering 404 errors when arriving from search engine results. To address this issue, you should set up redirects to direct users to the new taxonomy page for each category.
Here’s how to do it:
1. **Install and Activate the All in One SEO for WordPress Plugin:** Begin by installing and activating the “All in One SEO for WordPress” plugin. If you’re unfamiliar with plugin installation, check our beginner’s guide on installing plugins in WordPress. Note that while AIOSEO offers a free version, you’ll need the pro version for this tutorial to access the 301 redirection feature.
2. **Configure AIOSEO:** After activation, configure AIOSEO for your website by following our guide on setting up All in One SEO correctly.
3. **Access the Redirects Page:** Head to the “All in One SEO » Redirects” page in the WordPress admin sidebar. You may need to activate the redirection manager if prompted.
4. **Create the Redirect:** On the Redirects page, enter “/category/.*” in the ‘Source URL’ field. Click the gear icon in the field to access additional settings for the source URL. Check the ‘Regex’ option. In the ‘Target URL’ field, enter your custom taxonomy slug (e.g., “/dietary_restrictions/1”). Ensure that ‘301 Moved Permanently’ is selected as the redirect option from the dropdown menu. Finally, click the ‘Add Redirect’ button in the top-right corner.
The redirect you’ve set up will now route all category archive traffic to your custom taxonomy page. Please note that this method is suitable if you no longer intend to use categories at all. For redirecting individual categories to a custom taxonomy page, consult our beginner’s guide on setting up redirects in WordPress.
We hope this comprehensive guide has equipped you with the knowledge and tools to successfully convert WordPress categories into custom taxonomies. For more advanced WordPress customization, consider exploring our guide on styling individual categories differently in WordPress and our expert recommendations for the best conditional logic plugins for WordPress. If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for additional WordPress video tutorials. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates and tips.
