移除URL特定字符串并重定向：WordPress站点迁移跳转需求

Hey there! Let's get that redirect sorted smoothly for your WordPress site that's been running for a year. Since you're moving from example.com/dev to the root example.com and need every /dev-prefixed page to auto-redirect to its root equivalent (like example.com/dev/country/canada → example.com/country/canada), here are three solid methods to make this happen:

This is the fastest way because it works at the server level, before WordPress even loads. Here's what to do:

1. Access your site's root directory via FTP, cPanel File Manager, or your hosting dashboard.
2. Open the .htaccess file (if you don't see it, make sure hidden files are enabled).
3. Add the following rules BEFORE the # BEGIN WordPress section (this ensures the redirect runs first):

# Redirect all /dev paths to root domain equivalents
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^dev/(.*)$ /$1 [R=301,L]

• R=301: Marks this as a permanent redirect, which is great for SEO (it tells search engines to update their indexes to the new URLs).
• L: Stops processing any further rewrite rules once this one runs.

4. Save the file and test a few old /dev URLs to confirm they redirect correctly.

If you'd rather avoid editing server files, a redirect plugin is perfect. The Redirection plugin is the most popular and reliable choice:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard → Plugins → Add New, search for "Redirection", install and activate it.
2. Navigate to Tools → Redirection.
3. Click "Add New" to create a new redirect rule:
   • Source URL: Enter /dev/(.*)
   • Target URL: Enter /$1
   • Under "Match", select "Regex" (regular expression) so the (.*) captures any path after /dev/ and maps it to the target.
   • Set the Redirect Type to "301 - Permanent".
4. Save the rule, and you're done! Test a few old URLs to verify.

If you're comfortable editing theme files (use a child theme to avoid losing changes when your theme updates), add this snippet to your theme's functions.php file:

function redirect_dev_subfolder() {
    // 检查请求路径是否以/dev/开头
    if (strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/dev/') === 0) {
        // 替换/dev/为/，获取新的URL路径
        $new_path = str_replace('/dev/', '/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        // 以301状态重定向到新的根路径URL
        wp_redirect(home_url($new_path), 301);
        exit; // 确保重定向后停止执行后续代码
    }
}
// 挂钩到template_redirect动作，触发我们的重定向函数
add_action('template_redirect', 'redirect_dev_subfolder');

Save the file, and test your redirects to confirm they work as expected.

小提示： #

• 清除缓存: 如果你使用了缓存插件（比如WP Rocket、W3 Total Cache）或者CDN，设置完重定向后一定要清除缓存——旧的缓存内容可能会干扰新规则的生效。
• 301 vs 302: 永久迁移请坚持使用301重定向，这样能保留你的SEO排名。只有临时重定向才用302（你的场景里大概率不需要）。

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Fahad Abdullah