Wordpress in a subdirectory?
-
Hi, I've used this method a few times of developing Wordpress websites in a subdirectory and only moving the index.php file to root when the site is ready to launch. (full details of how this is done in the link below)
The sites I've used this on all index correctly and rank for their terms, so I haven't seen any negatives at all. However moving forward I would like to know for sure if this is indeed SEO-friendly?
note: The site functions as any other at www.domain.com, it's only the Wordpress install & admin etc. resides at: www.domain.com/wordpress/ -the pages are served to root ie. www.domain.com/about)
Details.. WordPress from a subdirectory to the root directory:
http://askwpgirl.com/how-do-i-move-wordpress-from-a-subdirectory-to-the-root-directory/
thanks in advance.
-
Thanks for your reply Marcus, and also for the details for moving to root. That may come in handy, and anyone else who stumbles across this thread too.
It's good to know there appear to be no issues for SEO in Wordpress residing in a subdirectory, yet I am appreciating more and more the need to keep things as simple and straight forward as possible.
Greg
-
Hey, I have been working like this for years and my own site uses this approach. However, I have come across a few premium themes and a smaller amount of plugins when it can cause a few problems, usually these are things you can easily hack in the source but it may break things when you update your theme and you have to hack again (yoothemes always have this bug).
So, I tend to keep sites in the root now if possible just to simplify things as much as possible.
Moving the site to a different URL / Directory is a pretty simple process:
1. Move all of the relevant files
2. Run the following queries in PHPMyAdmin (or whatever DB tool you use)
**UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'OLDSITE', 'NEWSITE') WHERE option_name = 'home' OR option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'OLDSITE','NEWSITE');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'OLDSITE', 'NEWSITE');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, 'OLDSITE', 'NEWSITE');**
- URLs are full paths without a trailing slash so
OLDSITE = http://www.url.com/subdir
NEWSITE = http://www.url.com
Obviously, back up the DB and test the water first but I have used this SQL a bunch of times (even in the last week) to move sites from one server to another (testing to live) or to even move sites from a sub directory to the root. Or, even to move sites from a sub directory on a testing server to the root on the live space.
So, it is not an essential change by any means but in the spirit of keeping things as simple and straightforward as possible, the root tends to work a little better in my experience.
Hope that helps!
Marcus -
Having worked quite a bit with WordPress (since version 1.2) I can't think of an SEO reason why this would cause a problem.
The only potential gotcha that comes to mind is that I'm not sure how well WordPress' one-click updater feature is going to work when WP has been spread amongst multiple directories.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to deal with 100s of Wordpress media link pages, containing images, but zero content
I have a Wordpress website with well over 1000 posts. I had a SEO audit done and it was highlighted that every post had clickable images. If you click the image a new webpage opens containing nothing but the image. I was told these image pages with zero content are very bad for SEO and that I should get them removed. I have contacted several Wordpress specialists on People Per Hour. I have basically been offered two solutions. 1 - redirect all these image pages to a 404, so they are not found by Google 2 - redirect each image page to the main post page the image is from. What's my best option here? Is there a better option? I don't care if these pages remain, providing they are not crawled by Google and classified as spam etc. All suggestions greatly received!
Web Design | | xpers0 -
Yoast focus keywords for portfolio post types in WordPress
This one is for the WordPress optimization crowd! Portfolios are used to display work. I have a question about best seo optimization techniques. 1. Portfolios can be used to display many different types of work, for me it either original web designs from scratch, WordPress redesigns, or importing a current website into WordPress. What is the best practice for keywords for multiple portfolios that are in one category. for instance WordPress Redesign. If I have 5 WordPress redesign portfolio posts is it good practice to use WordPress redesign for all 5 portfolios or should they use variations? Yoast gets angry when the same focus keyword is used multiple times. 2. Should portfolios even be indexed? Since this is how I attract new customers I would think yes but am I giving too much exposure to my client and not enough to my business. I guess this will depend on titles and meta descriptions. A discussion on best practices here is what I am really looking for. What is your advice and opinion on the matter.
Web Design | | donsilvernail1 -
Wordpress Plugin To Capture Form Completion Data, Before Visitor Hits "Submit"?
Greetings MOZ Community: Visitors frequently start to enter contact information in the forms on our website, but then chicken out and don't hit the submit button. I noticed this watching the recordings of visitor web site visits using Mouse Flow. Is there a Wordpress Plugin that would allow us to capture data entered in forms, where the visitor does not finally hit the "submit" button? Obviously this would be very, very valuable as this scenario occurs in one out of three or four instances. Thanks!!!
Web Design | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
Replacing Slider Image WordPress
Hi Everyone, I decided to delete my slider from my homepage and replace it with a static image. However, after I deleted the slider, I'm left with a dark square where the slider used to be. I want to put my new static image in that same spot, but have no idea how. Does anyone know where or what code I should add to do that? The page is www.kempruge.com The WP Forums never seem to be too helpful for me, but Moz always is! Thanks in advance, Ruben
Web Design | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Migrating to Wordpress
Hi Mozzers, happy friday! I'm moving a new clients website from a really bad CMS to Wordpress and wondered what I need to do to do this, get the A record of the old programmers? If someone could do me a checklist that'd be great! Thanks!
Web Design | | KarlBantleman0 -
WordPress not man enough...has anybody got experience working with Pryo CMS?
Hey folks I'm working with a small team on putting together a new niche accommodation / holiday search portal here in the UK. We are most likely using PHP / MySQL technology for the site - I am a huge fan of WordPress but not sure its quite man enough for the task (many option search over 10,000 plus properties). We can't afford to pay for a bespoke development, so off-the shelf CMS is the most likely route for release 1, and from what I've been reading Pyro CMS seems a good open source choice... https://www.pyrocms.com/ Has anybody come across this, or know how good it is with regards to on-site SEO? Or maybe WordPress is up to the task? If not, what are other good open source options for sites focused around a search function? Cheers Simon
Web Design | | SCL-SEO0 -
Wordpress drop down menu issue...
While I am tweaking my current site with getting rid of my footer links, my site will not allow a drop down menu for my service area parent page. It will do a drop down menu for any other tab. Could not find anything in a google search besides just link to parent for drop down... Any ideas?
Web Design | | greenjoe0 -
Wordpress vs. mvc framework
What's the benefits of choosing an mvc framework such as codeigniter or cakephp over wordpress? Wordpress has so many plugins, and a universally known UI for customers, it just saves a ton of time. However, a lot of the 'big guys' like SEOmoz and Distilled(?) use Cakephp and other mvc frameworks so it has me wondering what the benefits are...... anyone?
Web Design | | DonnieCooper2