As readers of this blog may have noticed the titles of my various Category Archives tended toward the looonnng side.
Having decided to see if I could shorten some of them I first went to my Typepad blogs because, there, when I changed the name of a category I could leave the original url untouched.
Having blogged for 5 years on one blog, and 3 on another changing the url on the categories would be a major hassle so I left them alone.
By running your cursor over titles, to see the url, you can see the differences on the ones I changed:
The first thing I noticed about WordPress was that the url changed to match the new name of the one category I tested by changing.
Wanting to learn if that was my only option I posted a question in the support forums and quickly got my answer:
ME: Can Category url remain unchanged when category name is changed?
I made a change to the name of a category. The url changed as well.
I want to change the names on other categories, reducing the name to 1 to 3 words on each. Let’s say I want to change the name on the “Pinterest” category from what it is now to just “Pinterest”. I do NOT want the current url for that category to change if at all possible.
ANSWER from a fellow member, named timethief, who has a 5 yr. old WordPress Tips, Tools & Tutorials blog:
Category slugs (url’s) cannot be edited; they can only be deleted and re-created.
ME: I see. That’s different than my blogs on a competitor who shall remain nameless. 😀 Of course, with only 70 blog posts it would be easy for me to change a link in any post where I might have directed people to the category so they don’t go to a blank page. Thanks!
TIMETHIEF: You’re Welcome.
My next step was to change the names of as many of my categories as I could.
Let this be a lesson to you: Think short right off the bat and you won’t have to do what I did today.
The Blogs of Kiril Kundurazieff:
SMFCB: A 365 Day Project 