How to Add WordPress Pages Category and Tags, That Supports Full Site Editing

In this guide, we’ll walk through the code for a simple custom WordPress plugin that does exactly that. It not only adds “Page Categories” and “Page Tags” to your edit screen but also enhances the WordPress admin area with filters, clickable terms, and sortable columns for your new taxonomies, and even displays the terms on the front end of your pages.

Let’s break down how this functionality is built.

Adding the Foundation: Registering Our Taxonomies

The first step in adding categories and tags to pages (or any custom post type) is to formally introduce these new classification systems to WordPress. This is done using the powerful register_taxonomy() function.

Our code defines two distinct taxonomies:

1. Page Categories: Registered with 'hierarchical' => true. This means Page Categories can have parent-child relationships, much like standard Post Categories. You can create nested structures if needed.
2. Page Tags: Registered with 'hierarchical' => false. Similar to standard Post Tags, these are more freeform and don’t have a built-in hierarchy.

We explicitly link these new taxonomies to the 'page' post type using the second argument in register_taxonomy(). Several other arguments are crucial: setting the user-friendly label (what appears in the admin), making them public and show_ui so they are accessible and visible in the WordPress admin interface, enabling show_in_rest for compatibility with the block editor (Gutenberg), defining a rewrite slug for friendly URLs (e.g., /page-category/news/), and crucially, setting show_admin_column to true to automatically add columns for these taxonomies on the Pages list screen.

This registration process needs to happen early in the WordPress loading process, which is why the function is hooked into the 'init' action.

Enhancing the Admin Area: Filters, Columns, and Sorting

Once the taxonomies are registered, the code focuses on improving the user experience within the WordPress admin panel, specifically on the “All Pages” screen.

Adding Filter Dropdowns:

Navigating through many pages can be cumbersome. The code adds handy dropdown filters above the Pages list, allowing you to quickly narrow down the pages displayed based on their assigned categories or tags. This is achieved by hooking into 'restrict_manage_posts'. Within this function, we check if we are on the ‘page’ post type screen, then retrieve all existing terms for ‘Page Categories’ and ‘Page Tags’ and generate the necessary HTML <select> and <option> elements to create the dropdown menus. When a user selects a term and clicks ‘Filter’, WordPress adds parameters to the URL (e.g., ?post_type=page&page_category=news).

Implementing the Admin Filters:

Adding the dropdowns is only half the battle; the filter actually needs to do something. The code uses the 'pre_get_posts' action hook. This powerful hook allows us to modify the main WordPress query before it runs. Inside the function hooked to 'pre_get_posts', we perform crucial checks to ensure we only modify the main query on the admin ‘edit.php’ page specifically for the ‘page’ post type. If a taxonomy filter is present in the URL (checked via $_GET), we add a tax_query parameter to the main query. The tax_query tells WordPress to retrieve only pages that are associated with the selected term’s slug in the specified taxonomy.

Making Admin Column Terms Clickable:

Looking at the Pages list, you’ll see the ‘Page Categories’ and ‘Page Tags’ columns automatically thanks to show_admin_column => true during registration. Our code enhances this further by making the terms listed in these columns clickable. Clicking a term here acts as a shortcut to apply the filter for that specific term, just like using the dropdown. This is done by filtering the content of the custom columns using the 'manage_page_custom_column' hook. The code retrieves the terms for the current page, then loops through them, generating an HTML link for each term that points back to the edit.php page with the filtering parameters set.

Making Columns Sortable & Handling the Sorting:

For even better admin management, the code makes the ‘Page Categories’ and ‘Page Tags’ columns sortable. This allows administrators to click the column headers to reorder the pages based on their taxonomy terms. The 'manage_edit-page_sortable_columns' filter is used to tell WordPress that these columns are sortable.

Similar to filtering, the actual sorting logic is handled by hooking into 'pre_get_posts' again. When a user clicks a sortable taxonomy column header, WordPress adds an orderby parameter to the URL. Our function checks for this parameter. While directly sorting by taxonomy isn’t a default simple query parameter, a common approach is to modify the query to include a tax_query for all terms in that taxonomy and then set the orderby to 'name' (the term name). This effectively sorts the pages based on their associated terms within that taxonomy context, providing a functional sort in the admin list.

Displaying Terms on the Front End

Organizing content in the admin is great, but users visiting your site might also benefit from seeing the categories and tags assigned to a page. The code includes a basic implementation to display these terms on the front end.

By hooking a function to the 'the_content' filter, the code automatically appends the list of assigned ‘Page Categories’ and ‘Page Tags’ after the main content of the page. It uses get_the_term_list() to fetch and format the terms with links to their respective archive pages (e.g., /page-category/news/).

While this simple method works, for more control over the exact placement and styling of the terms on your page, you would typically modify your theme’s page template files (page.php, single.php, or relevant template parts) to include the term display function (display_page_terms()) exactly where you want it.

How to Use the Code

To implement this functionality on your WordPress site, you have a couple of options:

Method 1: Create a Simple Plugin Manually

1. Create a new folder inside your wp-content/plugins/ directory. You could name it page-taxonomies.
2. Inside that folder, create a new PHP file, for example, page-taxonomies.php.
3. Copy and paste the entire code provided into this file. Make sure the plugin header comments (/** Plugin Name: ... */) are at the very top.
4. Go to your WordPress admin area, navigate to “Plugins” -> “Installed Plugins”.
5. Find “Page Categories and Tags for Pages” (or whatever you named it in the header comments) and click “Activate”.

Method 2: Use a Code Snippet Plugin

If you already use or prefer not to create separate plugin files for small code additions, you can use a popular code snippet plugin like “Code Snippets”.

1. Install and activate a code snippet plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
2. Navigate to the snippet plugin’s menu in your WordPress admin (usually labeled “Snippets” or similar).
3. Click “Add New” (or equivalent).
4. Give your snippet a descriptive title (e.g., “Page Categories and Tags”).
5. Copy and paste the entire code provided into the code area.
6. Choose where the snippet should run (e.g., “Run snippet everywhere”).
7. Save the snippet.
8. Make sure the snippet is activated (there’s usually a toggle or an “Activate” button).

Both methods achieve the same result. Using a code snippet plugin can be convenient for managing multiple small code additions in one place, while creating a dedicated plugin file is a standard practice for more substantial functionality.

Once activated using either method, you will see “Page Categories” and “Page Tags” sections when editing pages, and the columns, filters, and sorting options will appear on the “All Pages” list screen. The terms will also show on the front end of your pages (appended to the content).

Customization and Beyond

This code provides a solid foundation. You can easily customize it further:

• Change the labels or slugs of the taxonomies.
• Modify the front-end display by adjusting the HTML output in display_page_terms or integrating it directly into your theme templates.
• Add more custom taxonomies for pages if needed.