diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/helpers/category-link.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/helpers/category-link.js.es6
index 9b6b6caea..9f7d3f4ed 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/helpers/category-link.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/helpers/category-link.js.es6
@@ -61,7 +61,9 @@ export function categoryBadgeHTML(category, opts) {
     href = " href='" + href + "' ";
   }
 
-  return "<" + tagName + " class='badge-wrapper " + Discourse.SiteSettings.category_style + extraClasses + "' " + href + ">" + html + "</" + tagName + ">";
+  extraClasses = Discourse.SiteSettings.category_style ? Discourse.SiteSettings.category_style + extraClasses : extraClasses;
+
+  return "<" + tagName + " class='badge-wrapper " + extraClasses + "' " + href + ">" + html + "</" + tagName + ">";
 }
 
 export function categoryLinkHTML(category, options) {
diff --git a/test/javascripts/lib/category-badge-test.js.es6 b/test/javascripts/lib/category-badge-test.js.es6
index 22d76769a..9dbe2f3f7 100644
--- a/test/javascripts/lib/category-badge-test.js.es6
+++ b/test/javascripts/lib/category-badge-test.js.es6
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ test("Regular categoryBadge", function() {
       }),
       tag = parseHTML(categoryBadgeHTML(category))[0];
 
-  equal(tag.name, 'span', 'it creates a `span` wrapper tag');
-  equal(tag.attributes['class'], 'badge-wrapper', 'it has the correct class');
+  equal(tag.name, 'a', 'it creates a `a` wrapper tag');
+  equal(tag.attributes['class'].trim(), 'badge-wrapper', 'it has the correct class');
 
   var label = tag.children[1];
   equal(label.attributes.title, 'cool description', 'it has the correct title');