Thinking about migrating your blog from Blogger to WordPress but not sure where to start? You've come to the right place. I'll guide you through the entire process to ensure your site is migrated smoothly without any complications.
Blogger may be your first choice for its convenience, but WordPress offers unparalleled customization and growth potential. Don’t worry, the migration process is easier than you think. Although your Blogger pages will need to be recreated, WordPress’ built-in features, high-quality themes, and intuitive editor will make the migration a breeze.
I'll start with some basic migration tips, then guide you through five easy steps to migrate your content. Ready to upgrade your blogging platform? Let's get started!
Table of contents :
- Step 1: Export your Blogger content
- Step 2: Import your Blogger content into WordPress
- Step 3: Recreate the Design
- Step 4: Set up your permalink structure
- Step 5: Redirect Blogger Traffic to WordPress
Key Takeaways
- Migrating from Blogger to WordPress is fairly simple, as Blogger has a feature that allows you to export your main content in a format that WordPress can "read".
- You can automatically import your Blogger posts and images into WordPress, but not your pages and designs. You'll need to recreate these pages, but the WordPress editor makes this process quick and easy.
- To prevent traffic loss, you should redirect users visiting your old Blogger site to your new WordPress site immediately after the migration.
Migrating from Blogger to WordPress: What You Need to Know
Before you migrate your blog, it's important to understand the process. Migrating is a big decision. Essentially, you'll be moving from a free, all-in-one platform to a self-hosted solution.
You may be concerned about losing your content in the process. Unfortunately, not all content can be migrated from Blogger to WordPress, although key elements can be easily transferred to your new site.
When you migrate from Blogger to WordPress, you will be able to transfer the following:
- Posts
- picture
- Comment
However, the design and layout of your posts will not be migrated to WordPress. This means you will need to redesign your blog, but you won’t need to rewrite your posts.
Additionally, you will need to recreate your Blogger pages as they cannot be imported into WordPress.
That being said, WordPress gives you a lot of design flexibility, so if you want to keep the same aesthetic, you will be able to recreate something similar to the Blogger design.
How to Migrate from Blogger to WordPress (5 Steps)
Now, let’s see how to migrate from Blogger to WordPress.
We assume that you already have WordPress installed. If not, you can check out our guide on how to create a WordPress website .
1. Export your Blogger content
First, you need to export your Blogger posts. This means you need to download a copy of your content.
From your Blogger dashboard, navigate to the Settings page and scroll down to the Manage Blog section. Then click Back Up Content :
You will see a pop-up window informing you that the backup will include posts, pages, and comments. However, as mentioned before, these pages cannot be imported into WordPress.
Click Download to start the process:
You should now have the backup downloaded to your computer as a .xml file.
2. Import Blogger Content into WordPress
The next step is to import your Blogger content into WordPress.
Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to * Tools → Import *.
Here you'll see one of the Blogger options. Click "Install Now" to run the importer. This tool will import your posts, comments, and users:
Once ready, you will see a success message. Click Run Importer :
Now, select the .xml file you downloaded from Blogger. Then click "Upload file and import" :
Next, you'll be asked to confirm the authors of the imported posts. You can import Blogger authors as new users , or select existing users on your WordPress site:
When you’re ready, click Submit . You can now view your imported content by going to Posts in your WordPress dashboard .
3. Redesign
Now, let's see how to recreate the design of the Blogger website in WordPress.
Choose a theme
First, you need to choose a WordPress theme. You can choose a theme that's similar to your old Blogger site. Or, you can choose a completely new look!
In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New . Here you can browse a large selection of free themes:
You can use filters to narrow your search results and find only specific topics.
If you’re looking for a simple blogging theme, Raft is a great choice.
It's highly customizable, so you can adjust it to match the style of your Blogger site.
Once you find a theme you like, you can click “Install and Activate .” You can then edit the WordPress theme to your liking.
Design your posts and pages
If you open a post you imported from Blogger, you may notice that the layout is a little off. Your text and images should all be OK, but the elements may need to be rearranged.
First you need to click on the Convert to Blocks button:
This way you can manage each element individually as a block. For example, you can change the size of an image:
Of course, your post layout will be determined by the WordPress theme you choose . However, the block editor allows you to add more elements.
- You will also need to recreate the page by navigating to Pages → Add New Page .
For example, let's say you want to redesign your About page from Blogger to WordPress. You could copy the text from the old site and paste it onto the new page.
You can then try to recreate the design of your Blogger page using blocks or patterns:
If you’re not happy with the native block selection, you can install a plugin like Otter Blocks .
This will add over 26 new blocks to your site, which you can access from the block editor:
With Otter, you can make your new page more interesting than the old one, thanks to features like Lottie animations, sliders, flip cards, etc. In fact, rather than trying to redesign your Blogger layout, consider a complete redesign.
4. Set up your permalink structure
The next step is to configure the permalink structure for your new posts and pages. As you probably already know, your Blogger URLs look like this:
www.myamazingblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/my-first-post.html
With WordPress you will have a custom domain, which means your URL will be:
01.www.myamazingblog.com
If you go to * “Settings” > * “Permalinks” in WordPress , you will be able to configure the URL structure for your posts and pages. As you can see, you have several options:
While you might be tempted to select "Month and Name" to copy your Blogger URL, we don't recommend it. You want something short and memorable. Therefore, you might want to select the "Post Name" option.
When you’re ready, click “Save Changes .” Don’t worry about losing traffic by changing your URL—in the next step, we’ll show you how to move traffic to your WordPress site.
5. Redirect Blogger Traffic to WordPress
If your Blogger site has a decent amount of traffic and engagement, you'll want to make sure those users can find your new blog. This means redirecting them to your WordPress site when they visit your Blogger post.
Therefore, the final step to properly migrate your blog is to set up redirects.
To do this, we will use the Blogger to WordPress plugin .
Install it on your WordPress site by going to * “Plugins” > * ***“Add New” . Then, navigate to ***“Tools” → “Blogger to WordPress Redirect” and click “Start Configuration” :
Since you've imported your content from a Blogger site, the plugin will be able to recognize the URL of your old blog:
Click Get Code and copy the generated code snippet:
Now, return to your Blogger dashboard and go to the Themes page:
Click the arrow in the Customize button and select Edit HTML :
This will take you to a page with all of your theme’s code. Since you will no longer be showing your Blogger site to users (as they will be redirected to WordPress), you can go ahead and delete all of the code below:
You can then paste the code that the Blogger to WordPress plugin generates for you and click the Save icon:
Return to the WordPress page where the plugin generated the code for you and click Validate Configuration :
Now, if you try to visit your Blogger site, you will be redirected to your WordPress blog.
Please make sure that the Blogger to WordPress plugin is enabled on your site. If you remove the plugin, the redirect will no longer work.
Migrate Blogger to WordPress Now!
If you want to build a professional blog, you need a powerful platform like WordPress. It offers more customization and monetization opportunities than Blogger. Plus, it gives you more control over your site.
To summarize, here’s how to migrate from Blogger to WordPress:
- Export your Blogger posts.
- Import your Blogger content into WordPress.
- Choose a theme and redesign your page using the block editor and Otter Blocks .
- Set up your permalink structure.
- Use the Blogger to WordPress plugin to redirect your traffic.
Do you have any questions about how to migrate Blogger to WordPress? Let us know in the comments below!
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