Today I’ll show you how to move your blog from Blogger to WordPress without losing any content, search engine rankings, visitors and subscribers. It all can be done without using a premium migration service. It’s simple with my step-by-step instructions. Let’s dive right in.
Why move from Blogger to WordPress?
Sometimes the time is right to move your blog content from one blogging platform to another.
- You may have outgrown the platform.
- You may want to do a change that the platform doesn’t allow you to do.
- You may just need a new place to work in.
Which blogging platform is best for you? WordPress is an excellent Blogger alternative. It’s the most popular blogging platform. 35.3% of all sites use WordPress, while only 0.9% use Blogger as of January 2020.
Blogger hasn’t received any substantial upgrade nor improvement in years. WordPress, on the other hand, is being updated and continuously modernized. See Blogger vs. WordPress comparison for details.
The first step is to start your new WordPress blog
Before moving from Blogger, you need to start your WordPress blog. WordPress needs a domain name and a hosting account, so your blog is visible and available to anyone online.
How to transfer your blog posts from Blogger to WordPress
It’s now time to move your Blogger content to your WordPress blog. It’s a simple process. Blogging platforms are flexible. It’s possible to export or import content from one to another platform.
The open-source community of WordPress is ready to welcome Blogger users. There are several free WordPress plugins available to help you move.
Following is the step-by-step guide on how to move your content from Blogger to WordPress. All this without losing your subscribers, search engine rankings and traffic.
- Go into the Import section of your new WordPress blog. In your new WordPress Admin area go to Tools > Import in the left-hand sidebar. Click “Blogger” and on the pop-up window click “Install Now”.
- Activate the Blogger Importer plugin. Then click on “Activate Plugin & Run Importer”. This will install and activate Blogger Importer, the official plugin created by the WordPress team.
- Authorize the access to your Blogger account. Now click “Authorize” to tell Blogger to let your new WordPress account access your Google/Blogger account. If you get an error message about Google no longer supporting OAuth 1.0 use the Blogger Importer Extended plugin instead. It’s not made by WordPress, but it’s more recently updated and transfers your images too.
- Start the process of importing your Blogger content. Then “Import” to start the transfer process of your Blogger posts, comments, images and links to WordPress.
- Click on “Set Authors” button after completion. Select the user you’d like to assign the posts to and click “Save Changes” on the “Author Mapping” page. This allocates all the imported posts to your author name in WordPress.
- Set the permalink structure to the same as it was on Blogger. In Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress admin, make sure to select the URL structure to fit the structure you had on Blogger.
Congratulations! Your Blogger content now lives in WordPress. Next up, you should transfer your imagery too.
How to transfer your Blogger images to WordPress
In the process above, you’ve moved your Blogger blog posts to WordPress. Unless you used the Blogger Importer Extended plugin, your pictures did not transfer yet.
In this step, you’ll transfer any images you might have used on your Blogger blog. You can do this manually but more comfortable and quicker is to use a plugin.
Install and activate the Auto Upload Images WordPress plugin. Go to each individual post that you have imported and click on the “Update” button.
That’s it. This plugin will automatically discover and upload your Blogger images to your new WordPress media library.
How to redirect your Blogger visitors to WordPress
Now we need to tell Blogger what your new WordPress address is. This way you’ll automatically redirect visitors and subscribers to your WordPress URL but also keep your search engine rankings.
Here’s how to redirect from Blogger to WordPress:
- Activate the “Blogger To WordPress” plugin made by rtCamp in your WordPress admin.
- Go to Tools > Blogger To WordPress Redirection in your WordPress admin.
- Click on the “Start Configuration” button.
- Click on the “Get Code” button next to the correct blog on the list of imported Blogger blogs.
- Copy the generated code.
- Go to “Theme” menu in your Blogger dashboard and click “Edit HTML” on the theme you are currently using.
- Paste the copied code replacing all the existing code in the template and click on “Save Template”.
- Check that everything works by entering your Blogger homepage or one of your old Blogger post URL’s in your browser. It should automatically redirect you to the new WordPress URL.
Remember to never delete your Blogger blog as it continues to redirect your visitors.
How to redirect your Bloggers RSS feed subscribers to WordPress
- In Blogger Dashboard go to Settings > Other.
- Click “Add” in “Post Feed Redirect URL” to enter your WordPress feed URL (yourdomain.com/feed/ by default).
- Click “Save Settings” to redirect your RSS feed subscribers to your new feed.
How to redirect your custom domain name to WordPress
Most Blogger blogs simple user the blogspot.com domains. If you’re one of them, you don’t have to worry about this section.
But what about if you have a custom domain name for your Blogger blog? You’ll need to modify the domain name server to redirect your domain name to your new WordPress blog.
This is done at the same service provider that you used to register your domain name in the first place.
This change might take up to 72 hours to complete, but in most cases, it is done within a few hours. You should also remove the custom domain name integration within your Blogger settings.
Click on the cross icon within “Publishing” in the “Basic” section of Settings in your Blogger account.
You’re ready to start exploring WordPress
Your Blogger content now lives on your new WordPress blog. The search rankings are intact. Your visitors (and subscribers) see your new URL when trying to access your content.
You are ready to continue working on your content, to promote your blog and build your audience.
