Recently we redesigned a site, which included moving a Wordpress blog from the directory it was currently in (/blog/) to the root directory. This is actually a fairly simple and straightforward process, assuming you follow the steps correctly. Here’s a quick little guide to get you through the process as smoothly as possible, and hopefully without any swearing at your computer screen.

1. Backup the files that are currently in the root directory, including anything that will get copied over, like the .htaccess file, etc. Also backup your Wordpress database, better safe than sorry.

2. Log in into your current blog, and go to “Settings”, then “General”.

3. Change the “Wordpress Address (URL)” and “Blog Address (URL)” fields to the new location, http://www.example.com. Click the “Save Changes” button.

   Don’t try to go to your blog in between this and the next step.

4. Move your Wordpress files to the new location on the server. Make sure to include the core files, plugins, themes, etc. Basically just copy everything.

5. Log in to your admin panel at the new address, so http://www.example.com/wp-admin.

6. Use the Search & Replace plug in to update your database with the new address. In this case, you’d want to find all occurrences of http://www.example.com/blog and replace them with http://www.example.com

7. If you had another part of the site that wasn’t on Wordpress, you may need to redirect those pages to their new counterparts. Add these redirects to your .htaccess file, and you are good to go.

That wasn’t so bad!