How To Remove Product Category Slug In Woocommerce

How to Remove Product Category Slug in WooCommerce

Removing the product category slug in WooCommerce can significantly enhance the URL structure of your online store, making it more user-friendly and SEO-optimized. While WooCommerce doesn’t offer a direct feature to remove the category slug, you can achieve this through Explore this article on How To Create Collections In Woocommerce a few tweaks and customizations. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the process of removing the product category slug in WooCommerce.

Why Remove the Product Category Slug?

Before diving into the steps, it’s essential to understand why you might want to remove the category slug from your URLs:

**Improved SEO**: Shorter URLs are easier for search engines to index, potentially improving your SEO rankings.
**Enhanced User Experience**: Clean URLs are more memorable and readable, enhancing user experience.
**Professional Appearance**: Removing unnecessary slugs gives your website a more professional look.

Step-by-Step Guide to Remove Product Category Slug

Step 1: Backup Your Website

Before making any changes, it’s crucial to backup your website. This ensures that you can restore it to its previous state if anything goes wrong.

Step 2: Use a Plugin

There are several plugins available that can help you remove the product category slug. Yoast SEO and Permalink Manager Lite are popular choices.

**Yoast SEO**: This plugin is primarily used for SEO optimization but also offers features to modify URL structures.
**Permalink Manager Lite**: This plugin allows you to customize your permalinks easily, including removing slugs.

#### Using Permalink Manager Lite

1. Install and Activate the Permalink Manager Lite plugin.

2. Go to Tools > Permalink Manager.

3. Under the Permastructures tab, select Product categories.

4. Use the option to remove the category base, and save your changes.

Step 3: Edit `.htaccess` File

If you prefer not to use a plugin, you can manually edit the `.htaccess` file. This method requires you to have FTP access to your website.

1. Access your website’s files using an FTP client.

2. Locate the `.htaccess` file in the root directory.

3. Add the following code to remove the category slug:

 RewriteRule ^product-category/(.+)$ /$1 [QSA,L]

4. Save the changes and upload the file back to the server.

Step 4: Use Custom Functions

Another way to remove the product category slug is by adding custom functions to your theme’s `functions.php` file.

1. Access the `functions.php` file of your active theme.

2. Add the following code snippet:

 add_filter('request', function ($vars) { if (isset($vars['category_name'])) { $vars['product_cat'] = $vars['category_name']; unset($vars['category_name']); } return $vars; });

3. Save the changes and check your website to ensure the URLs are working correctly.

Potential Issues and How to Fix Them

Removing the product category slug can lead to potential issues, such as 404 errors or URL conflicts. Here’s how to address them:

**404 Errors**: Test your URLs after making changes to ensure they redirect correctly. If you encounter Read more about How To Change Product Page In Woocommerce 404 errors, revisit your steps to ensure everything is set up correctly.
**URL Conflicts**: Removing the category slug can cause conflicts if you have product names that match category names. To avoid this, ensure your product and category names are unique.

Conclusion

Removing the product category slug Read more about How To Use Woocommerce Plugin In WordPress in WooCommerce can be a straightforward process if you follow the right steps. Whether you choose to use a plugin or manually edit your files, ensure you backup your website before making any changes. By optimizing your URL structure, you can improve both your SEO and the user experience on your site.

Key Takeaways

**Backup** your site before making changes.
Use plugins like **Yoast SEO** or **Permalink Manager Lite** for easier management.
Consider manually editing the `.htaccess` file or adding custom functions if you prefer not to use plugins.
Check for potential issues such as **404 errors** and **URL conflicts**.

By following this guide, you can successfully remove the product category slug in WooCommerce, creating a cleaner and more SEO-friendly URL structure for your online store.