Remove Category URL – Remove 'category' base from category permalinks

FAQ

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 to mydomain.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.