Four kinds of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) with phenyl benzoate side groups were synthesized and their photoinduced reorientation behavior was investigated using linearly polarized (LP) UV light based on the axis-selective photo-Fries rearrangement and thermally induced self-organization of the mesogenic side groups of the materials. Due to different effect of the axis-selectively photoreacted side groups, reorientation direction and its performance depended on the chemical structure of the side groups. Both alignment ability and the molecular rotation of the photoreacted side groups played an important role in the reorientation behavior.