How to Import Categories and Taxonomies with WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro

WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro makes importing Taxonomies such as categories and post tags into your WordPress site quick and easy. For effective import of taxonomies and categories, navigate to WP Ultimate CSV importer Pro -> Import/update. Choose the post type as Taxonomies. Map the incoming data elements, configure the import settings, and run the import.

Understanding WordPress Categories and Taxonomies #

In WordPress, taxonomies are the terms used to organize content into groups based on common themes. The two main taxonomies are Categories and Tags.

• Categories: Organize your content into broad, hierarchical topics. 

For example, Your Food blog may have the categories like “Breakfast”, “Lunch”, “Dinner”, and “Desserts”.

• Tags: Describe more specific details about the content. For example, your recipe post for chocolate cake may have tags like “Chocolate”, “Cake”, “Dessert”, and “Baking”.

You can also divide the categories into subcategories to organize your content further. 

For example:

• Dinner (Parent category)
  • Vegetarian (Subcategory)
    • Vegan (Child subcategory)

In this example, “Vegetarian” is a subcategory of “Dinner”, and “Vegan” is a child subcategory of “Vegetarian”.

Custom Taxonomies in WooCommerce and Plugins #

When you add WooCommerce to WordPress, it introduces its own custom taxonomies, such as:

• Product Categories (to group products like “Electronics”, “Furniture”, or “Clothing”)
• Product Tags (to describe specific features of products, such as “Sale”, “New Arrivals”, or “Discounted”)
• Product Attributes (for specifics like color, size, or brand)

Plugins and themes can also create custom taxonomies for specific purposes. For example, a travel blog might add custom taxonomies like:

• Destination (for grouping posts about different places, e.g., “Paris”, “Tokyo”, “New York”)
• Travel Type (for categorizing posts about types of travel, e.g., “Adventure”, “Luxury”, “Budget”)

They might also use tags like “Solo Travel”, “Family Vacation”, or “Backpacking” to describe travel experiences in more detail.

In this way, taxonomies in WordPress help you keep your content organized and accessible for users, whether it’s through broad categories, specific tags, or custom taxonomies for unique content.

Now let’s see how to import taxonomies like categories and tags using WP Ultimate CSV importer Pro.

Download the Sample CSV for catgories and tags here.

Step 1: Prepare Your CSV File #

Before importing categories and taxonomies into WordPress, first prepare the CSV file with the desired columns such as post_name, post_categories, and post_tags. 

• Categories: The column should list the names or IDs of the categories you want to import.
• Custom Taxonomies: If you’re importing custom taxonomies (e.g., “Product Categories”, “Portfolio Types”), create a separate column for each custom taxonomy and list the relevant terms for each post.

Step 2: Upload Your CSV File #

Once the plugin is active, you can begin the import process:

1. Make sure you have the WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro plugin installed and activated on your WordPress site.
2. Go to Ultimate CSV Importer > Import/update in your WordPress dashboard.
3. Click on browse and select the CSV file you prepared.

Step 3: Select Import Type #

In this step, you will choose what kind of content you’re importing. To import a new record, select New Import. To update content, select update content For Categories and Taxonomies:

1. For Custom Taxonomies, select the specific custom taxonomy (e.g., product_category, portfolio_type, etc.) from the dropdown.
2. Choose Categories if you’re importing WordPress default categories.

Step 4: Map CSV Columns to Taxonomy Fields #

After uploading the file, you’ll need to map the columns in your CSV to the corresponding WordPress taxonomy fields.

• Map Categories: Select the Categories field and map it to the CSV column containing the category names or IDs.
• Map Custom Taxonomies: If importing custom taxonomies, map each CSV column to the appropriate custom taxonomy field.

For example, if your CSV contains a “Product Categories” column, map that column to the custom taxonomy field for “Product Categories.”

Step 5: Configure Import Settings #

Before proceeding with the import, configure the settings to control how the categories and taxonomies are assigned to your posts.  

You can enable the roll back options, maintenance mode and efficient duplicate handling of records based on your import needs.

Also, you can schedule your data import at your desired time by simply enabling the “Do you want to schedule import?” option. Then provide the desired time, date, time zone etc on which you need to import your records. Click on Schedule Import.

Step 6: Start the Import Process #

Once all mappings and settings are configured:

1. Click Confirm and Run Import.
2. WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro will begin importing the categories and taxonomies into your WordPress site.

You can monitor the progress of the import, and once it’s complete, you’ll receive a summary of the imported categories and taxonomies.

Step 7: Review the Imported Data #

After the import is finished:

• Go to Posts > Categories or Custom Taxonomies to verify the categories and taxonomies have been correctly imported.
• Check that the posts have been assigned the appropriate categories or taxonomy terms.

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Advanced topics #

Hierarchical Taxonomy #

With WP ultimate CSV importer, you can easily maintain structured and easily navigable websites by organizing WordPress posts and content under specific categories. To efficiently handle this categorization in an import file, such as a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file, you can follow a particular format that allows you to specify multiple categories and even nested categories for each post.

Category Import with Post data  #

 In your CSV file, you would define a column for categorizing each post or product. You can then assign one or more categories to each product using commas to separate multiple categories. For products that belong to subcategories, you can use the “>” symbol to indicate the parent-child relationship.

1. Multiple Categories

If you want to import a post belonging to more than one category, you can separate the category names with a comma (,).

In this example, the post titled “How to Import Data” will be assigned to three categories: WordPress Import, Data Import, and Importer. The categories are separated by commas.

2. Nested Categories

Sometimes, you may want to organize your categories into a hierarchical structure, where one category is a subcategory of another. This can be achieved using the greater-than symbol (>). In this case, the category values will reflect the parent-child relationship.

For example, if you have a parent category called “WordPress Import” and a subcategory under it called “CSV Import,” you would format it as follows:

Here, the post is assigned to the “CSV Import” subcategory, which is nested under the parent category “WordPress Import.”

3. Multiple Nested Categories

In some cases, a post might belong to multiple categories, some of which are nested. To represent this, you would use a combination of the comma and greater-than symbols. Each nested category is indicated with the > symbol, and multiple categories are separated by commas.

In this example, the post titled “How to Import Data” will be assigned to two categories:

• WordPress Import > CSV Import (which means the CSV Import subcategory under the WordPress Import parent category)
• WordPress Import > XML Import (which means the XML Import subcategory under the WordPress Import parent category)

The categories are separated by commas, while the > symbol is used to indicate that one category is nested under the other.

Frequently Asked Questions #

1. What is the Difference Between Categories and Tags?  #

Categories and tags are both part of WordPress taxonomies, used to classify and organize posts. However, they serve different purposes:

• Categories are broader and more hierarchical. They help group posts into general sections (e.g., “News”, “Tutorials”, “Products”).
• Tags are more specific and used to describe the details of a post (e.g., “WordPress tips”, “SEO”, “Tutorial”).

2. How Do I Import Posts with Categories in WordPress?  #

To import posts with categories:

1. Follow the import process of WordPress post import as usual.
2. In the Drag & Drop interface, find the Taxonomies, Categories, and Tags section.
3. Specify how you want to handle incoming categories and tags by mapping your CSV data to the appropriate fields.
4. Complete the import process.
5. Review the imported categories and tags to ensure accuracy. 

3. How Do I Import Categories with a Hierarchy in WordPress?  #

To import categories with a hierarchy refer to the Hierarchical Taxonomy for Nested and Multiple categories import

4. How Do I Import Categories from CSV to WordPress or WooCommerce? To import categories from a CSV file: #

1. Upload your CSV file during the import process.
2. WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro will automatically detect the file type and adjust the interface accordingly.
3. Choose the Post type as WooCommerce Products and the import type as New/Existing based on your import needs
4. Map the appropriate category fields in the CSV file to WordPress taxonomy fields.
5. Complete the import process. The process is the same regardless of whether you are importing data to a standard WordPress site or WooCommerce store.

5. How Do I Bulk Upload Categories?  #

To bulk upload categories:

1. Follow the regular import process but upload multiple categories in your CSV file.
2. WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro will handle them as bulk uploads.
3. The bulk upload process is straightforward and doesn’t require any special steps other than ensuring that multiple categories are present in your CSV.

6. How Do I Import Tags into WordPress?  #

To import tags:

1. Navigate to WP Ultimate CSV importer Pro> Import/Update and upload your CSV file.
2. Choose taxonomies as the import post type and Tags as the subtype.
3. Map the incoming data elements (such as tag names) to the appropriate taxonomy fields.
4. Run the import and check that the tags were correctly imported.

7. How Do I Export WordPress Categories or Tags?  #

To export categories or tags:

1. Navigate to WP Ultimate CSV Importer > Export.
2. Choose Taxonomies as the export post type.

3. Select the specific taxonomy (e.g., Categories or Tags) you need to export.

4. Use the advanced filter to export your data more specifically. That is you can export the taxonomy fields like category, post types, and custom taxonomies of your posts, products, etc. To know more about the advanced filter, refer here.

5. Run the export and download the file for further use or migration.

8. How Do I Migrate WordPress Categories or Tags to Another Website?  #

To migrate categories or tags between WordPress sites:

1. Export the categories or tags from the source site.
2. Download the export bundle file, which includes both the data and import instructions.
3. On the target site, use the import functionality to upload the bundle file.
4. Run the import and verify that the categories or tags have been successfully transferred.