Wordpress - Disable front end to use as CMS only?

To make sure only the front end redirects to domain.com, make a theme that uses the PHP header() function.

  • Create a folder called redirect or something.
  • Add two files to the folder: style.css and index.php (necessary for a valid WP theme)
  • In style.css, add something like this:

    /*
    Theme Name: Redirect
    Description: Redirects the front end to domain.com
    */

  • In index.php add this:

    header( "Location: http://domain.com" );

  • Upload the folder to the themes directory and then activate it in the admin UI.

Use a theme with "empty data". Put two files in directory, then activate "theme".

style.css

/*
Theme Name: turn off frontend
Theme URI: 
Description: 
Author: 
Version: 
License: GNU 
License URI: 
Tags:
*/

and index.php

<?php
exit;

Put this in your .htaccess and list the paths you want to keep available:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-admin
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-includes
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-login
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/uploads
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/plugins
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/cache
RewriteRule (.*) http://yournewdomain.com/ [R=301,L]