301 redirect all child pages to parent directory using .htaccess

Question

I need to 301 redirect all child pages of a specific parent directory on my website.

i.e. redirect www.example/com/parent/child and www.example.com/parent/another-child etc. to www.example.com/parent

Is this achievable using the .htaccess file?

Solution

Near the top of the .htaccess file in the root of your site, you can add the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(parent/). /$1 [R,L]

The $1 is just a backreference to "parent/" (saves repetition).

Change R to R=301 if this is intended to be permanent. (But only after you have confirmed that it works.)

Comments

[MrWhite]

"parent page" - do you mean "directory"? Is /parent a physical directory on the filesystem? If not, how are these URLs being routed?

[Double Clicked]

I meant directory (edited now) /parent is both a directory and a page.