The Ultimate DIY Quick Guide to moving from Blogger to WordPress

Hi! Have you been blogging on Blogger and now are ready to take your blog to the next level? Moving to a self-hosted WordPress blog is a great way to do that!

This tutorial is a quick guide to all the steps necessary for moving your blog from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog.

If you like detailed step-by-step instructions with pictures visit my complete tutorial for migrating from Blogger to WordPress

Or if you’d like someone else to do it, I can move your blog to WordPress for you!

There are affiliate links below. If you find this information helpful, please use the links! It’s no cost to you and it helps me fund more tutorials like this in the future. Thanks!

1. Purchase hosting for your blog

The first step to moving your blog to WordPress is to purchase a self-hosted server for your blog. For people just starting their blogs, I recommend getting a Blue Host or Just Host starter or plus plan. If you’ve been blogging a while and already have a good amount of traffic I recommend using more advanced hosting: Blue Host WordPress account or SiteGround.

2. Install WordPress

WordPress is very simple to install on your sever. You can go to WordPress.org and download a .zip file and then install that file on your cPanel. Or, you can login to your cPanel by visiting yourblog.com/cPanel and use the WordPress installation button. No coding, no learning curve, just a “one click” install. Once installed, go and adjust your general settings.

3. Add a theme to your blog

A WordPress theme adds additional structures, functions, and visual display to your WordPress Blog. I recommend Genesis themes because they are beautiful, responsive, HTLM 5 current, cleanly coded, and SEO enhanced. If you need help choosing a theme read my tips for picking out a great theme for your blog. Or, here is a post on my top 5 favorite themes.

4. Adjust WordPress Settings

In order for your images to transfer over and not be blurred you need to adjust the images settings. Go to Settings – Media and then set the max width to something high. Usually 1500px is enough. This will make sure your images aren’t compressed when you migrate them over. Later, you can use the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin to adjust image sizes.

5. Install and activate the Blogger to WordPress plugin

From your WordPress dashboard, go to Tools – Import and the install and activate the plugin called Blogger. This plugin will import your tags, posts, images, and comments. It doesn’t import pages.

6. Import your blogger blog to WordPress

To start the import click Authorize in the Blogger plugin. Google will ask for your approval. Select the blog you’d like to import and click import.

Depending on the size of your blog, it could take a long time. If it freezes, go through the restart process. It will pick up from where it left off.

7. Convert categories to tags

One of the advantages of WordPress is the ability to have tags and categories. All of your labels from blogger will come over as categories, but you’ll want to change most of those over to tags. To do so, install the Categories and Tags Converter. Once activated, you can use the plugin by going to Tools – Import – Categories and Tags converter. Learn more about using categories and tags.

8. Add pages, set up menus, and add content to your sidebar

Now that your content has transferred over from Blogger to WordPress, and all the technical stuff is taken care of, you can finish setting up your blog! First, go add pages and menus, and then add content to your sidebar. You might want to check out a few of the posts from my series, How to Start a Blog, the Right Way for helpful tutorials. Once your blog is set up the the way you want it and you are ready to go live, it is time to redirect your links and traffic.

9. Redirect traffic from Blogger to WordPress

From  a .blogspot url to your new domain name

In order to redirect any links from your .blogspot URL to your new URL we will use a plugin. Go to Plugins – Add New and search for “Blogger to WordPress”. Select the plugin called Blogger to WordPress that is by rtCamp. This plugin is different from the first Blogger to WordPress plugin we used, it only redirects traffic from your Blogspot blog to your new blog. Install and activate the plugin and then hit Start Configuration. Follow the instructions included with the plugin.

From a custom domain name to your new site

First, you need to point your domain to your new host. Usually, domains are purchased through GoDaddy.com. Follow their instructions for changing your nameserver.  You will also need to get in touch with your hosting company and they will provide the nameserver ids necessary.

If you set your WordPress permalink structure up in settings to be exactly the same as it was in Blogger, there isn’t much more to do.

However, most people want to ditch the long default Blogger URL and the .html at the end for a cleaner URL.  Choose your new format by navigating to Settings – Permalinks. Then, in order to redirect your old links, follow the instructions from Yoast for updating your permalink. You’ll need to type in the old structure and then the new structure. Yoast will generate a code that you need to upload to your .htaccess file.

10. Update Feeds

Even if you had a custom domain, you need to update any account that required a feed. A few examples are Bloglovin, feedly, newsletter RSS feeds, and push notifications for social media. Your WordPress feed is: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

That’s it! A lot of people are hesitant to move from Blogger because they think it will be a lot of work. It does take some time, but it will be worth it!

If you have any questions about the process or along the way, let me know.

Leave me a link to your blog once you’ve switched, I’d love to check it out!