I see a lot of people asking how to make their WordPress site accessible from the root directory folder. In most standard installations, WordPress is installed in a sub-folder and the only way to access the site is to add that sub-folder name to the site’s URL.

If you read the wordpress.org support forum you’ll find posts suggesting that you move the WordPress index.php file to the root folder and change a few things in that file. You’ll also see replies from people who have tried it unsuccessfully.

Here’s a little trick that will allow you to access your WordPress site from the root URL without moving or modifying any of the WordPress installation files. This method will “hide” the WordPress installation’s folder name when people access your home page but they will see the folder name in URLs when they start clicking around…

Check your root folder for a file called .htaccess (note that the dot is before the file name). If there is one, download it. If not, create one with a plain text editor such as Windows Notepad. Make sure that when you save it, the file type is set to “All Files” so that your editor doesn’t try to add an extension onto the file name.

Make sure that these lines are included in your .htaccess file. For this example the root URL is shown as domain.ext and the WordPress folder is shown as wpfolder. You will have to change these values to match your own domain name, extension, and WordPress folder name:

RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} domain.ext$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !wpfolder/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ wpfolder/$1


Upload this file to the root directory of your web server as a plain text file. You’re done!

Now go to Google Webmaster Tools and let them know the “preferred URL” of your home page so you don’t get penalized for duplicate content.

This article copyright © John Nasta 2009 – All Rights Reserved

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