How To Move Wordpress from Subdomain to Root

by Jeff Tirey on January 28, 2010 · 6 comments

in General

If you’re like me, you started your Wordpress blog as a subdomain and now you wish to move it to root.  Here’s what I did to successfully move my Wordpress 2.8.5 blog:

1. Login to Wordpress Admin and under General > Settings change the wordpress address and blog address URLS.

2. Using an FTP client, such as FileZilla, move all files from your subdomain directory to the root.

done!

If you are using permalinks, you may have to update them. There are plugins to help you with this.  I use permalinks and did not since blog.mydomain to www.mydomain change had no effect on the link path.

I hope this helps and yes it’s as easy as you thought it would be.

{ 1 trackback }

Moving a directory from a subdirectory to a root directory.
July 16, 2010 at 2:03 pm

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Gagan August 16, 2010 at 11:40 am

I have done this much but there are still some issues
1) If we delete the sub-domain part, where will all our users go? How to make them redirect to our new location.
2) How to tell search engines that we have moved our blog
3) The way you have explained it and if we don’t delete the previously installed (at sub-domain) files, we are using the same database and both the blogs will keep getting updated.
4) Google might think of it as a plagiarism and we would be alloted some penalties for that.

If you find any solution, please tell me. You have my e-mail id, right!

Rob August 17, 2010 at 1:25 pm

Thanks for the help. I followed your instructions exactly, and it worked great! I just wanted to reiterate the importance of doing things in that order, because if you move the files first, you’ll be unable to log in to Wordpress Admin to change the addresses. Oh, and don’t freak out when you can’t access your Admin, because you won’t be able to until you move all the files. Thanks again!

Jeff Tirey August 17, 2010 at 1:35 pm

Hi Gagan,

What is the source of your visitors? If it’s from search engines then go ahead and delete the subdomain and Google will reindex your site under the new path. If your traffic is coming from outside links, then add a 301 redirect. I don’t think you need to explicitly tell search engines you have moved, but it doesn’t hurt to do so either. Again, just use a 301 redirect statement.

I don’t think wordpress can serve up your content under both the www and old subdomain once you update your settings, but my original instructions ask to move the file and moving implies deleting from the old location.

All the best.

Jeff Tirey August 17, 2010 at 1:42 pm

Here is additional information on this subject which provides greater clarity and depth:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress#Moving_WordPress_Within_Your_Site

Gagan Kalra August 23, 2010 at 3:09 pm

Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the instructions. I have done this successfully and written a long post regarding the same. Yes I used 301 redirects and it wasn’t easy. I tried and cover all your points and also mentioned how I pushed myself through this conundrum.
Here is the link if you wanna read and share,
http://totalbarmy.org/move-wordpress-blog-from-sub-domain-to-root/

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