WPBeginner

Beginner's Guide for WordPress

  • Blog
    • Beginners Guide
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Showcase
    • Themes
    • Tutorials
    • WordPress Plugins
  • Start Here
    • How to Start a Blog
    • Create a Website
    • Start an Online Store
    • Best Website Builder
    • Email Marketing
    • WordPress Hosting
    • Business Name Ideas
  • Deals
    • Bluehost Coupon
    • SiteGround Coupon
    • WP Engine Coupon
    • HostGator Coupon
    • Domain.com Coupon
    • Constant Contact
    • View All Deals »
  • Glossary
  • Videos
  • Products
X
☰
Beginner's Guide for WordPress / Start your WordPress Blog in minutes
Choosing the Best
WordPress Hosting
How to Easily
Install WordPress
Recommended
WordPress Plugins
View all Guides

WPBeginner» Blog» Tutorials» How to Exclude a Category From Your WordPress Homepage

How to Exclude a Category From Your WordPress Homepage

Last updated on August 13th, 2018 by Editorial Staff
89 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Free WordPress Video Tutorials on YouTube by WPBeginner
How to Exclude a Category From Your WordPress Homepage

Do you want to exclude a specific category from your website’s homepage? By default, WordPress displays posts from all categories on your homepage. In some cases, you may not want that. In this article, we will show you how to easily exclude a category from your WordPress homepage.

Exclude Category from WordPress Homepage

Why Exclude a Category from WordPress Homepage?

WordPress allows you to sort content into categories and tags. Now sometimes you may want to use a category for posts that are not part of your normal blog entries.

By default, WordPress does not allow you to hide posts in specific categories from homepage or archives. This leaves you with unwanted posts appearing on your homepage.

That being said, let’s see how you can easily exclude a specific category from your WordPress homepage. We will show you two different methods, and you can choose the one that best fits your need.

Method 1: Exclude a Category from WordPress Using Plugin

First thing you need to do is to install and activate the Ultimate Category Excluder plugin. For more details, you should follow our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Settings » Category Excluder page. It will display all the categories that are available on your WordPress blog.

Category excluder settings

From here, you can simply check one or multiple categories under the ‘Exclude from front page’ column. If you want, then you can also exclude the category from RSS feeds, archives, or even from WordPress search.

Exclude category

Don’t forget to click on the Update button to store these settings.

Now you can visit your website to see that the posts from the selected categories are excluded from the front page.

Method 2: Exclude a Category from WordPress Homepage Using Code

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then see our guide on how to copy and paste code snippets in WordPress.

You will need to add following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.


function exclude_category_home( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_home ) {
$query->set( 'cat', '-5' );
}
return $query;
}

add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category_home' );

Don’t forget to replace ID (-5) with your category ID. It will hide all blog posts from homepage belonging to the category that matches this ID.

Note: Make sure to add a minus (-) sign with the category ID.

Not sure how to find the category ID? See our guide on how to find category IDs in WordPress.

If you want to exclude multiple categories, then you can change the code like this:


function exclude_category_home( $query ) {
if ( $query->is_home ) {
$query->set( 'cat', '-5, -9, -23' );
}
return $query;
}

add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category_home' );

Simply replace the IDs (-5, -9, -23) with your category IDs to exclude them from your WordPress homepage.

We hope this article helped you learn how to exclude a category from your WordPress homepage. You may also want to see these most wanted category hacks and plugins for WordPress that will help you use categories more efficiently.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

89 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Popular on WPBeginner Right Now!
  • Google Analytics in WordPress

    How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners

  • How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

    How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

  • Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

    Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

  • Checklist

    Checklist: 15 Things You MUST DO Before Changing WordPress Themes

About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

10 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Abdullah Al Muaz says:
    Nov 28, 2020 at 4:37 am

    thanks dude. it works.

    Reply
  2. Abdullah Al Muaz says:
    Nov 26, 2020 at 3:00 am

    i use a specific page to display recent posts. so i think for my case it should not be /code $query->is_home /code
    what should i put instead of “home”
    i want to hide specific category from “blog”

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 27, 2020 at 10:04 am

      The code should work the same for your blog page if you set a page for your recent posts.

      Reply
  3. MENHADI HASAN says:
    Nov 24, 2019 at 3:04 am

    Hi,
    How to exclude whole category and custom from the search form or can I modified search form to just search by a specific taxonomy rest all are excluded from the search

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 25, 2019 at 10:51 am

      For hiding content from your search, you would want to take a look at our page here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-exclude-specific-pages-authors-and-more-from-wordpress-search/

      Reply
  4. Sidchan Mall says:
    May 25, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    Thanks for the tip, I began using the plugin to exclude theme-specific content posts (testimonials, sliders) on my website!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 28, 2019 at 1:52 pm

      You’re welcome, glad our guide could help :)

      Reply
  5. Paolo says:
    May 6, 2019 at 3:52 am

    I followed the Method 2 instructions, but after the change the media library doesn’t work anymore!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 6, 2019 at 2:36 pm

      The code should not affect your media library unless there is a larger error that is affecting your site. It would depend on the error message for the reason.

      Reply
  6. Christopher says:
    Aug 13, 2018 at 11:56 am

    Thanks for this article.

    I want to ask if it’s also possible to exclude Google Adsense ads from some specific categories

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

Over 1,320,000+ Readers

Get fresh content from WPBeginner

Featured WordPress Plugin
WPForms Logo
WPForms
Drag & Drop WordPress Form Builder Plugin. Learn More »
How to Start a Blog How to Start a Blog
I need help with ...
Starting a
Blog
WordPress
Performance
WordPress
Security
WordPress
SEO
WordPress
Errors
Building an
Online Store
Useful WordPress Guides
    • 7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)
    • How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress
    • Why You Need a CDN for your WordPress Blog? [Infographic]
    • 30 Legit Ways to Make Money Online Blogging with WordPress
    • Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]
    • Free Recording: WordPress Workshop for Beginners
    • 24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites
    • How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
    • 5 Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress Compared
    • Which is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin? (Comparison)
    • Best WooCommerce Hosting in 2021 (Comparison)
    • How to Fix the Internal Server Error in WordPress
    • How to Install WordPress - Complete WordPress Installation Tutorial
    • Why You Should Start Building an Email List Right Away
    • How to Properly Move WordPress to a New Domain Without Losing SEO
    • How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting for Your Website
    • How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform (Comparison)
    • WordPress Tutorials - 200+ Step by Step WordPress Tutorials
    • 5 Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins Compared
    • 5 Best WordPress Membership Plugins (Compared)
    • 7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2021)
    • How to Choose the Best Domain Registrar (Compared)
    • The Truth About Shared WordPress Web Hosting
    • When Do You Really Need Managed WordPress Hosting?
    • 5 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared
    • How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings
    • How to Properly Switch From Wix to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • How to Properly Move from Weebly to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • Do You Really Need a VPS? Best WordPress VPS Hosting Compared
    • How to Properly Move from Squarespace to WordPress
    • How to Register a Domain Name (+ tip to get it for FREE)
    • HostGator Review - An Honest Look at Speed & Uptime (2021)
    • SiteGround Reviews from 4464 Users & Our Experts (2021)
    • Bluehost Review from Real Users + Performance Stats (2021)
    • How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website?
    • How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step)
    • Free Business Name Generator (A.I Powered)
    • How to Create a Free Business Email Address in 5 Minutes (Step by Step)
    • How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners
    • How to Move WordPress to a New Host or Server With No Downtime
    • Why is WordPress Free? What are the Costs? What is the Catch?
    • How to Make a Website in 2021 – Step by Step Guide
Deals & Coupons (view all)
PremiumCoding
PremiumCoding Coupon
Get 40% off on PremiumCoding's collection of beautiful WordPress themes.
Churnly Coupon
Get 30% OFF on Churnly WordPress automated churn-busting plugin.
Featured In
About WPBeginner®

WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).

Join our team: We are Hiring!

Site Links
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • FTC Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Free Blog Setup
  • Free Business Tools
  • Growth Fund
Our Sites
  • OptinMonster
  • MonsterInsights
  • WPForms
  • SeedProd
  • Nameboy
  • RafflePress
  • Smash Balloon
  • AIOSEO

Copyright © 2009 - 2021 WPBeginner LLC. All Rights Reserved. WPBeginner® is a registered trademark.

Managed by Awesome Motive | WordPress hosting by SiteGround | WordPress Security by Sucuri.