What are best practices for changing the directory of a Wordpress blog?

November 29, 2008 1:06 PM

I want to move my Wordpress blog from a subdirectory on my domain to the root directory -- i.e., I want the URL of my posts to be changed from http://www.domain.com/blog/post-permalink to http://www.domain.com/permalink . What's the best way to ensure that external links don't die? Is there a way to make sure that individual posts will retain their Google PageRank?

I know that some variation on a RewriteRule in the site's .htaccess file is what I'm looking for, but I'm unclear on the specifics. What are best practices for this sort of transition?

posted by tweebiscuit to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I think you should be able to do:

redirect permanent /blog /

...but I haven't tested this. Try it out.
posted by sonic meat machine at 1:11 PM on November 29, 2008

Response by poster: Well, to be clear, I figure that doing a simple redirect would be easy -- what I want to be sure about is what kind of redirect Google and other robots will respect the most.
posted by tweebiscuit at 1:15 PM on November 29, 2008

Ah. I'm not knowledgeable about SEO. Carry on, then. :)
posted by sonic meat machine at 1:17 PM on November 29, 2008

Response by poster: One more clarification: Instead of just changing the permalink options in Wordpress, I'm going to be moving the whole Wordpress installation to the root directory of my domain, rather than a subdirectory. Otherwise, I would just rely on Wordpress to do the redirection for me!
posted by tweebiscuit at 1:27 PM on November 29, 2008

I wonder if Permalink Redirect would be of any use to you?

Don't forget to change the Blog URL under Settings/General too. :)
posted by Solomon at 2:00 PM on November 29, 2008

Best answer: But you don't need to move the whole WordPress installation to the root directory. WordPress makes it very easy to do this. See these step-by-step instructions on Giving WordPress its Own Directory. This is really the right way to do it: You just change the directory on the Options tab and then update the .htaccess file, as you inferred.
posted by lgandme0717 at 3:20 PM on November 29, 2008

Response by poster: Awesome, Igandme0717! If I do this, will http://www.domain.com/podcast/permalink still work (or at least redirect) as well, though?
posted by tweebiscuit at 7:39 PM on November 29, 2008

Response by poster: Actually, rereading this, looks like it will -- it's actually the root level that's getting redirected to the /podcast/ directory (which is what my directory is called) rather than the other way around, so the /podcast/ links should still work, right?
posted by tweebiscuit at 7:44 PM on November 29, 2008

Yes, you can make the "new" directory either the root level or the name of any other subdirectory. I believe your old permalinks will still work as you anticipate -- at the very least, you can instantly try that out once you change the blog address (as per the instructions I referred to) and update the .htaccess file. Good luck!
posted by lgandme0717 at 9:25 PM on November 29, 2008