Install Wordpress in root or /blog folder?
I noticed that several of our top local bloggers use the /blog folder to install their WordPress. I thought that to be odd. Then I realise many automatic WordPress installation provided by webhosts install them in the /blog folder. Personally, I prefer www.liewcf.com instead of www.liew.com/blog, don’t you? For one thing, /blog just adds unnecessary length to the URL name and doesn’t contribute anything to SEO other than telling people that the site is a blog.
I guess for these bloggers it is now harder now to change it back to the root since all the search engines have indexed the content in their /blog folder.
Famous local bloggers using /blog:-
Famous local bloggers using their root folder:-
Of course, at present, to LiewCF and HongKiat, having their content on “/blog” is not detrimental they are now well established and have high rankings on search engines with their URL.
However if you are starting out a new blog, it’s better you start clean and install in your root folder instead of “/blog”.
Popularity: 54% [?]
I don't know any of the names you mentioned
January 31st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Andrew,
I’ve diff opinion. If you like to expand your site, it seems weird to see file not categories by section.
I’m using /blog option as i’m thinking to expand into diff purpose eg. online apps, system testing or future online project doc. By personalizing ur clients folder will give diff impression where they more impress with sub-folder name to their ‘names’.
btw, my opinion, it depends on one needs. just stick to blog or expend into other stuff.
krazl
http://www.krazl.com
January 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am
Ahh…but here is a little known WordPress tip I worked out back in the early days of WordPress.
You install WordPress into a folder, BUT instead of copying the index along with it. You just put the index.php into the root along with the .htaccess file.
Then edit the index.php do that the line:
require('./wp-blog-header.php');Becomes:
require('./wordpress-folder-name/wp-blog-header.php');Then that’s it. Your blog would read as your root and your WordPress files will be safely and neatly behind its own directory.
Of course, this is why I tell people to learn how to install WordPress themselves. Knowing how it works makes it easier in the long run.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:37 am
@Krazl: Yeah I agree. It depends on what type of website you have. If like me, my main domain is just for the blog, might as well put it in root. If you plan to have multiple use for that domain, then by all means have a /blog and /somethingelse.
@Edrei: Great tip!! I always suspected that can be done but never knew the details. Thanks!!
January 31st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Matt of Google actually recommend install blog in /blog folder.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
require(’./wordpress-folder-name/wp-blog-header.php’);
Script does not apply to my server..
krazl
http://www.krazl.com
January 31st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I’m with krazl. Reason mine’s in a folder is because I plan to create other stuff than my blog.
Liew, what was the reason Matt gave that advice..?
January 31st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
@Krazi: It’s not a script. It’s your WordPress index.php. Just edit the line in that and it works fine from there.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:17 am
Thanks Liew, for the heads up. There are, of course, other reasons for installing Wordpress into “/blog” that I may not know.
This is what Matt Cutts has to say about putting your blog in a subdirectory:-
February 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am
@Edrei.. yeah.. quite clear for me when you first mention where should I put PHP coding (xperience in PHP 3 years).
But still it doesn’t apply to my server.
p/s: i’ve used this coding before..
krazl
http://www.krazl.com
February 6th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I prefer to see http://www.johnnykiu.com rather than http://www.johnnykiu.com/blog.
But with wordpress, we can actually redirect the xxx.com to xxx.com/blog