Gary Jones

<p>If bots are attacking your site by appending <code>/search/a-random-string-or-word</code>, then those pages may be getting indexed by search engines, or populating search logs.</p>
<p>This plugin disables that permalink structure.</p>
<p>Search forms will still work, and the search results page will use the less index-friendly <code>?s=search-term</code> format.</p>


Disable Search Slug

Stops /search/... URLs from working, resulting in a WordPress 404 page not found.

Themeisle

Valerio Souza

<p>Remove Category URL strips the <code>/category/</code> base from your category URLs, turning something like <code>/category/my-category/</code> into simply <code>/my-category/</code>.</p>
<p>Just activate, and you’re done. No configuration needed.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Creates cleaner URLs like <code>mydomain.com/my-category/</code> and <code>mydomain.com/my-category/my-post/</code></li>
<li>Works out of the box with no settings to configure</li>
<li>Supports multiple sub-categories</li>
<li>Automatically 301 redirects old category URLs to the new structure (SEO-friendly)</li>
<li>Sitemaps are automatically updated with the new URLs after activation</li>
<li>Compatible with WordPress Multisite, WPML, and popular sitemap plugins</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why remove /category/ from URLs?</h3>
<p>The <code>/category/</code> base in WordPress URLs is there by default, but it doesn’t help your visitors or search engines understand your content any better. When you remove <code>/category/</code> from URLs, you get cleaner paths like <code>mydomain.com/news/</code> instead of <code>mydomain.com/category/news/</code>. They’re shorter, easier to remember and share, and more consistent with how your pages are already structured.</p>
<p>Shorter URLs also tend to look better in search results and make your site feel more polished overall. Removing the category base is a small change that makes your whole URL structure cleaner.</p>
<h3>Support</h3>
<p>We’re here to help. Feel free to open a new thread on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/remove-category-url/" rel="ugc">Support Forum</a>.</p>
<h3>Useful Resources</h3>
<ul>
<li>If you like this plugin, you’re sure to love <a href="https://themeisle.com/wordpress-plugins/" rel="nofollow ugc">our other plugins</a> as well.</li>
<li>Our blog is a great place to <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/" rel="nofollow ugc">learn more about WordPress</a>.</li>
<li>Get the most out of your website with our helpful <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmRasCVwuvpSep2MOsIoE0ncO9JE3FcKP" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress YouTube Tutorials</a>.</li>
</ul>


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

Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.

Disable Search Slug vs Remove Category URL – Remove 'category' base from category permalinks