Depending on how you install WordPress on your web host, you’ll get one sample page, one sample post, one sample comment, and one default category named Uncategorized.

Now, you can delete the post, page, and comment, but you won’t be able to delete the category. The reason why you can’t delete it is that WordPress requires at least one category for published posts.

Also, some editors might forget to select a category, so WordPress will automatically post the article in the Uncategorized category.

Some might tick the proper category, but forget to untick the Uncategorized one.

Leaving things like that will look very unprofessional, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

Some users may not trust your blog for a simple mistake like that, because they think you don’t care about it, and if you don’t care for your blog, you might not care for the content you are providing them as well.

Rename the Uncategorized category in WordPress

Renaming the Uncategorized category should be one of the most important things to do right after installing WordPress.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard;
2. Click on Posts and then on Categories;
3. Hover your mouse over Uncategorized, then click on Quick Edit;
4. Rename the Uncategorized category however you think it’s best (e.g. Miscellaneous, Other, etc.). Don’t forget to rename the slug as well;
5. Press Update Category.

You could also click on Edit instead of Quick Edit if you want to make other changes as well, especially if you are using the Yoast plugin (e.g. index/noindex the category, set an SEO title and description, include into the sitemap).

Here’s also a video tutorial that we made:

Conclusion

It’s best to make this easy change because you never know when you’ll make a mistake and forget to select a proper category for your post, or deselect the Uncategorized one.

Like I said above, one minor mistake like this could make users think you’re careless, and that’s not good!

Hope you found this article useful! Don’t forget to share it with your friends!