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Blogger or WordPress – Tips on How to Move

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 87 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Blogger or WordPress - Tips on How to MoveAfter my How to Start a Blog on WordPress post (this post included tips on how to get your domain, self-hosting, etc. and reasons for why you should pay for blog hosting), I received several e-mails on how to switch from Blogger to WordPress, questions about the whole migration process, whether a person should choose Blogger or WordPress, and so on.

A lot of you asked me what is better: Blogger (Blogspot) or WordPress? I’ve also been asked “What will happen if I move my Blogspot blog to self-hosting?”

Let me say that I am definitely no expert in this area and just fiddled around with it just so that I could try and help you guys.

This is a very basic set of instructions. If you don’t have the time to sit down and do this, please, please just pay someone to migrate your blog from Blogger to WordPress for you.

Some of the tips in this blog post will be a repeat of the How to Start a WordPress Blog post, as I’m trying to help each individual person instead of having someone having to flip back and forth between the two blog posts for the basics.

If you sign up for Bluehost through my link and purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting, then you will get your domain for FREE plus receive discounted pricing!

As, I said above, this is a very basic How to Transfer a Blog From Blogger to WordPress post.

It would be really hard for me to say everything in one blog post that could possibly be said about moving from Blogger to WordPress. I definitely do not want to be held accountable if anything happens! If you are the type of person who can search things online if anything extra does come up, then this guide should suffice.

Obviously if all you want to do is create a whole new blog and start all over on your WordPress blog, then all you have to do is follow the How to Start a Blog post, and then make a new post on your old blog saying that you’re moving. Voila, you’re done if all you wanted was to start over with a brand new blog.

If you don’t feel comfortable with making the switch from Blogger to WordPress completely on your own, there are several website designers out there who offer migration services for this. E-mail me if you are interested in having me connect you with any of them.

 

Excerpt from my How to Start a Blog post on why you should be on WordPress:

“I started my blog in August of 2011 and have come across some major hurdles.  I started on Blogger, which I still really regret. If you’re still on Blogger, switch to WordPress now! On Blogger, you might think you own your blog since you “have” your own domain, but you really do not.

Blogger can delete your blog whenever they want, and it actually happened to me one time. I had to practically beg for it back, and I heard they don’t usually do this. Usually your blog is just deleted forever. I had a huge panic attack when that happened.

All of my work just deleted? And all they had to do was click a button and everything was gone!?”

 

Why you should move to WordPress from Blogspot. 

If you want to make money blogging, the first thing you will need to do is make sure you have a self-hosted blog, such as through Bluehost.

I recommend you start on self-hosted WordPress (this tutorial will help you start your blog the correct way). I cannot say this enough, but I do not recommend Blogger or WordPress.com (you want the self-hosted version, which is WordPress.org – confusing, I know). Buying that $10 domain name from Blogger or GoDaddy does not mean you own it either.

Advertisers, companies, and readers will know you are still on Blogger or free WordPress, which can look unprofessional. Plus, your blog can be deleted at anytime and for no reason when on a free version, and it even happened to me. This can hurt your chances at earning your income online.

Seriously, just trust me. Go with self-hosted WordPress, and it will significantly increase your chances of monetizing your blog.

If you want further proof, take a look at my past income reports. You can tell that my income through blogging didn’t take off until just as I switched to WordPress. Right there is a lot of proof that being self-hosted on WordPress is the way to go!

So, to recap, the positives of being self-hosted on WordPress through Bluehost include:

  • You have a more professional website meaning you may be able to make more money on self-hosted WordPress.
  • The ability to have complete control over your blog.
  • You own your blog, and it can’t be deleted for no reason.

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through myBluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, you want to be self-hosted if you want to learn how to make money with a blog.

 

Switching to WordPress from Blogger isn’t for everyone but WordPress is definitely better.

I completely understand if switching to WordPress from Blogger isn’t for you. I was hesitant for over a year before I finally switched. However, I am EXTREMELY happy that I made the switch to WordPress from Blogger, and I still regret not making the migration sooner.

If you are thinking about whether Blogger or WordPress is for you, from the post above there are obviously many positives of being on WordPress.

Tip before you begin your Blogger to WordPress migration: Make sure you back-up your blog and everything else attached to it before you do anything major and potentially mess it up. Some posts may not show up the exact same way also, so you might need to go through old posts and edit them.

 

Step 1: Domain

After you’ve decided that WordPress is for you with the “Blogger or WordPress” decision, the first step in the Blogger to WordPress migration is to get your domain. If you already have a domain then you can skip to Step 2.

For the loooongest time ever, my blog was known as senseofcents.blogspot.com. I finally bought the domain, www.makingsenseofcents.com, through Go Daddy and haven’t looked back since. I don’t think anyone has ever said “I regret buying my domain and looking more professional.”

You can buy your domain and your Bluehost web hosting for one cheap price. If you use my Bluehost link, then you can get your domain for free through them if you purchase a hosting plan of 12 months or more.

 

 

Step 2: Hosting

The next step with the Blogger to WordPress migration is to get your web hosting.

There are a lot of hosting companies out there and Bluehost seems to be one of the best. Hosting starts at only $3.49 per month. It’ll most likely cost you around $60 a year (it’s cheaper if you pay for the whole year upfront instead of paying it monthly), which is a really good deal! You can also pay for just one month at a time also, which lessens the burden but keep in mind that you will be paying twice as much if you do this. I highly recommend signing up for 12 months or more as you will receive the cheapest pricing and a free blog domain too.

  1. Go to Bluehost and click the sign-up button
  2. Click over to “I have a domain name” or create your domain name through Bluehost directly.
  3. Enter your information and choose your hosting plan

Having a self hosted blog seems to be the way to go definitely. Having your blog self hosted pretty much means that you can do whatever you want, and there are no major limitations as you would with Blogger and free WordPress. You can download any theme you want, make your blog look any way you want, and you have TOTAL control over your blog when you are self hosted.

And if you’re looking to make money off of your blog, then self hosted is the way to go. You can run any of your own advertisements, affiliate links, direct advertising, etc. on your blog.

To learn about how to connect your domain and hosting, please read Step 3 and Step 4 on my other post How to Start a Blog. This will give you many additional tips that I didn’t want to post here as then there would be WAAAY too much overlap.

 

How to Transfer a Blog from Blogger to WordPressStep 3: Transfer your Blogger blog to WordPress

The third step with your Blogger to WordPress migration is to actually start transferring your Blogger blog to WordPress. I promise this is easy and anyone can do it!

When logged into your WordPress account, look on the left hand side bar and go to “Tools.” Then click on import and select the Blogger option (for me it was the very first option).

Here are the tips directly from WordPress:

  1. Click on Authorize
  2. If you are not already logged into Google you will be asked to log in
  3. You will be asked to grant WordPress access to your Blogger information, to continue press Grant Access
  4. You will be presented with a list of all of your blogs
  5. Select the appropriate blog and press the import button
  6. Wait while the posts and comments are being imported
  7. Press the Set Authors button
  8. Select the appropriate mapping for the authors
  9. Review categories, posts and comments

 

How to Transfer a Blog from Blogger to WordPress

Other tips

To minimize broken links because of your old post structure while on Blogger, you will want to have the same Permalink structure. Log into your WordPress account after everything is set up and go to Settings > Permalinks. Click on Custom structure and type in this  /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html. Of course, if your Permalink structure was something else, then click on that option. If you are migrating from Blogger though, then it is most likely the custom structure that I just listed.

Also, if you are concerned with your Page Rank, it is best to revert all of your posts on your old Blogger website to Draft form. Don’t do this until your site is completely ready though! You will want to make them all draft form because Google penalizes sites that have the same posts/pages as another website. I wouldn’t delete the old posts just in case you didn’t do a step correctly and want to go back. Your images will all still be on Blogger, so you do not want to delete your Blogger blog. Just keep it there,  it won’t impact anything as long as the posts are in draft mode.

Transfer Feed

Transfer Your Feed

Another major tip for your Blogger to WordPress migration: When you are about to transfer everything over, make sure to warn your readers before hand. Let them know of your potential new domain so that they know where to find you! Make sure to update your feed also when you are done so that you don’t lose your subscribers. I was able to keep most of mine and in the end nearly everyone has found me. You want to be able to redirect your followers.

First, log into Blogger. Then go to Settings > Other > Site feed and type in your new URL in the Post Feed Redirect URL like shown in the above picture.

Have you moved your blog from Blogger to WordPress? What’s holding you back? What made you choose Blogger or WordPress?

 

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. laura @ nms says

    Hi Michelle – great post.
    I made the switch late last year and the one thing I didn't do was publicise it enough – I changed my feed, but still lost over 400 subscribers – so I would recommend any switching to make sure everyone knows before hand.

    Reply

  2. evencheap says

    Great tips! I agree paying someone to do the switch is definitely worth it if you don't have time, or if you're not techie I wish I had just started on WordPress.

    Reply

  8. Leslie says

    I imagine one fear people have is that if something goes wrong with their self-hosted site, they have to fix it themselves. This is true and it can be scary but WordPress and your hosting company both are there to help you. The hosting company I use has great customer support at all times of the day. Also, so many people WordPress that just by googling "problem + wordpress" you're bound to find an answer or discussion related to it. When you're paying for something, you usually get better support.

    Reply

  9. Ian says

    Hi Michelle,

    Can't agree more about owning your whole blog, not just the domain name. I think your next post should be called 'What I learnt by removing LinkWithin from my WordPress site'.

    If you click any of the related articles provided by LinkWithin you will notice they are redirected via the LinkWIthin website. This is terrible for SEO and replacing it with an internal related posts plugin such as YARPP or nRelate should show your rankings and traffic from the search engines increase substantially as more link juice is passed around within the site.

    All the best

    Reply

  11. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    Good post Michelle! I started with WP for many of the reasons you outlined. I hated the possibility of just randomly losing all of my work and wanted to control it myself. The theme I bought was only $45 and you can buy many for that amount which really is not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

    Reply

  12. johnnyofb says

    Nothing sends shivers down my spine more than the words "host migration." It's some tricky bidness, but your step-by-step is as easy as any I've ever read. Nice work.

    Reply

  14. Niki says

    What happens if I already have the domain and want to keep it, but want to transfer my blogger feed to the new wordpress one?

    I've been thinking about transferring for so long now, I feel like it may be due time! But honestly I am a bit worried about the feed.

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      I'm pretty sure you can just skip the Domain step and act as though you already did it, since technically you did. Does that make sense? That's how it was for me also. I already had the domain for almost a year. I just switched it over. Step 1 in this blog post is really for people who don't have the domain yet, but if you already do then you can just skip that step.

      My feed transferred over just fine, I didn't have any problems. Now, you might lose some of your Google Friend Connect followers, but I would just ask them to follow your RSS instead. Once you transfer to WordPress, your posts should still show up in the Blogger feed though, I know that mine still do.

      Reply

  17. therandompath says

    Great tips Michelle! I am glad I started my blog with WordPress from the get-go. I've heard terrible things about Blogger and their commenting system is quite annoying.
    My recent post Budget, Smudget!

    Reply

  18. @girlmeetsdebt says

    Such an informative post Michelle! To be honest, I didn't even know the difference between wordpress or blogger when I started my blog 2 months ago. I'm lucky my computer savvy boyfriend did all the work and apparently he made the right choice by going with wordpress lol. I just sit and think and write blog posts haha

    Reply

  20. @StumbleForward says

    I started my first site on Blogger and it was a disaster. Shortly after I found a website that showed me how to set up my website with a series of videos and I never looked back since. Great article Michelle

    Reply

  21. kimateyesonthedollar says

    I sometimes feel like the most stupid blogger ever, but I am so thankful that I started on WordPress. At least I got that one right! If you are on blogger, switch now. If you are thinking of starting a blog, go with self hosted, WordPress. You might have to watch Youtube for hours to get started, but it's all out there if you take the time to set it up right from the start.

    Reply

  22. Michelle says

    I switched from Blogger to WordPress on December 24th! But, I am really glad that I start with Blogger because I was able to see if I would stick with blogging. Also, I was able to learn what blogging really meant: answering comments, writing content, editing posts, etc. before making the leap to WordPress.

    Reply

  23. mycanuckbuck says

    WordPress was where all the cool kids were – so I started there! 🙂
    My recent post Tips on paying your mortgage off early

    Reply

  24. JNieto says

    I would also recommend using the "wordpress move' plugin. That's what I used when I moved and changed my blogs domain. It handled all of the database changes and domain change fairly effortlessly. The only problem I ran into was that jetpack got screwed up somehow so I had to delete and re-install it. The other thing that took me week or so to clean up was the old domain name popping up here and there. I think I've cleaned up all of those artifacts already (At least I hope I have). I wrote a post on the change but can't bring it up on comment luv if anyone is interested in reading it.
    My recent post Investing in Stocks and Fundamental Analysis – An Introduction

    Reply

  25. @TheHeavyPurse says

    I started with WordPress and it works great for me. I understand why people start with blogger or a wordpress.com blog when they're trying to see if blogging is right for them. But I'm glad I don't have to go through a move though:) I recently renewed my hosting with godaddy and now I'm hearing about all these attacks on their websites. Thankfully I was unscathed but what a pain!
    My recent post Children and Money: Don’t Turn It into a Taboo Topic

    Reply

  26. The Norwegian Girl says

    I`m still a wordpress.com blog, but I`m new in this game, so I`ll probably wait a couple of months to see how it goes. But if I can keep both my interest and readers interest then I`ll probably get my very own site!

    Reply

  29. studentdebtsurvivor says

    I started one of my craft blogs in blogger and moved it over to wordpress myself. It wasn't super difficult, but I didn't have a ton of followers or posts to lose. Since then I've started all of my blogs on self-hosted platforms with wordpress. It's much easier to start that way and not have to worry about losing content and followers. Great post.
    My recent post Required Reading at Work!?!?

    Reply

  31. missamanda101 says

    I've decided to move my free wordpress.com blog to self-hosting. And I'm confused. If I use the wordpress platform with my self hosting (thru Host Gator or Blue Host or whoever), will my content automatically move over to http://www.mydomain.com? Or is it possible (and hopefully easy) for me to import my current content to the new blog?

    Sorry if this is answered somewhere, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with this whole plan to move to a domain.

    🙂
    My recent post How My Teeth Caused a Coworker to Quit

    Reply

  32. Jose says

    Michelle, In January I not only moved my blog but changed the domain name at the same time. I wrote a post about it, I hope you don't mind if I include a link to it here. http://wisedollar.org/changing-your-blogs-url/ , I used the WordPress Move plugin, which handled all of the database changes as well as any URL changes that were needed. I made teh move and domain change fairly easy. There were a few catches that made me scratch my head which I explain in the post. Thanks! Jose
    My recent post When Death Do You Part – Is Your Family Prepared?

    Reply

  33. Audrey says

    You basically blew my fears of migration with your post. but I got one more question – did the importer work out well for you from the first try? I've made several attempts and getting a blank screen…

    I found another converter to migrate my site to WP, and it worked great in the demo – CMS2CMS http://www.cms2cms.com/ – never seen anything easier. Have you heard about it and do you recommend me to migrate the whole site using this website?

    Reply

  34. Nida's Beauty Bag says

    I started my blog on wordpress last year. Reading all the aspect i chose wordpress. I read hurdles for blogger/blogspot but there is one thing I am facing alot.. Basically, my blog is a beauty blog and all my fellow blogger from this field has blogspot blogs.. and i noticed they all interact with each other better than to me. I cannot add google friend connect on my blog… People dont comment mch because of their ease.. I m really worried for this..can any one help mee?????

    http://www.nidasbeautybag.wordpress.com

    Reply

  35. Naeem Malik says

    And why would you worry for your blog being removed from Blogger? I know if you follow the terms nicely you probably need not to worry about it.
    I am not a great Blogger fan but the site’s speed and non-hacking thing certainly helps on Blogger.

    Reply

  36. Bex says

    Thanks for this post. It’s just what I needed to read.

    I am in the process of doing just that: moving from Blogger to WordPress now my blog’s grown so much.

    BUT

    It seems a majority of my comments haven’t made it through! Would you have any ideas how to fix this? I am paying someone to help me with the design, etc – but even she’s stumped.

    Would appreciate an email

    Thanks

    Reply

  37. Dave Cottrell says

    I have many sites in blog format. All of my TLDs except one use WordPress. It’s just hard to beat if for all the things that can be done, ease of setup, ease of editing, including editing the html and css behind the scenes. I have done that on Blogger, as well, which I have on one TLD, and have found it maddening by comparison.

    Reply

  38. kazelle says

    Hi I am very oblivious on what to do, currently I am on blogger, I also have my word press account. But the one with the blogger is my main blog and I want to transfer it to word press. but the thing is I already had adsense approved my blogger account and if I transfer to word press then it means starting from scratch. I also bought domain name and 3month plan hosting on godaddy.com I don’t know what to do with it.lol
    Can you help me out? Anyone with experience?
    I agree that word press is great when promoting the blog.

    Reply

  39. Donovan says

    So what exactly happens when you switch everything over? Does it reformat everthing and bring your content over? I saw a post of someone just starting over, which for someone like me who doesn’t have a following and rather posts and then sends everything to my facebook friends, would it really be worth it to bring everything over?

    Also if your blog is not for the purpose of making money and is more to stay accountable and share your story, is spending $50/year something that is a wise choice of $? Just wondering your throughts and responses, thanks in advance.

    Reply

  41. El says

    I am just about to take the leap from blogger to wordpress it is pretty much all ready to go!
    I have one question and wondered if you had any advice.
    I was previously websitename.blogspot.com and then a couple of years ago I bought websitename.com through blogger via GoDaddy. This is about to expire in 30 days and as I am moving to wordpress, my new host Bluehost have sent me and email saying I need to renew my domain with GoDaddy (who I believe you can’t contact directly if you bought your URL through blogger) or transfer to Bluehost. When I click through on Bluehost to transfer it asks me to get a code from GoDaddy.
    Have you kept your domain with GoDaddy? Is it through them themselves or still via Google/Blogger?
    Gosh it is all so complicated and I hope you can understand what I’m getting at. I am so stressed out by this.

    Reply

  42. Desert Scrooge says

    I’ve been looking up posts all day on how to migrate one of my blogs to word press and this one was the only one that explained it in a clear and concise manner. Thanks!

    Reply

  45. Julie says

    I’ve had my blogger site for awhile but now I’m thinking of transferring over to wordpress. Are you talking about wordpress.com or wordpress.org? I’m confused!

    Reply

  46. Elizabeth Carty says

    I am trying to follow these steps, but the WordPress import process is quite different now. It asks for you to upload the XML but it doesn’t seem to be working… 🙁

    Reply

    • Valerie says

      Hi Elizabeth! I know i’m late on this, but once you purchase your hosting through Bluehost, you can call their support line and they will walk you through the process step by step. They can also help you make certain changes on the back end as well depending on what you need. I migrated my website from a free site (Wild Apricot) to a self-hosted WordPress site a couple of years ago and it was the best decision I could have made. PS: You’ll get an even bigger discount on your hosting through BlueHost if you buy 3 years upfront. Best of luck! 🙂

      Reply

  48. Dawn says

    Looking for guidance…I created a blog page back in October 2016 through “Blogger”. I only created the name — I haven’t done any actual blogging, there are no comments, pictures, etc. I’ve decided I want to use Bluehost, but I don’t think I want to transfer my blog to Bluehost. Rather, I think I’d like to create the same blog page (domain) name, but want to do it on Bluehost. My question…can I just go to my current page on Blogger, do the steps to permanently delete the blog, THEN create my blog on Bluehost with the name of the blog I permanently deleted on Blogger? Thanks for any feedback!

    Reply

  50. Cindy says

    Hello, and thank you for all your great tips. Years ago, I had a great personal website, but then I became ill. My website years ago was extremely expensive. But, I know longer find it. I did use WordPress and found it easy to navigate. I went too Go Daddy and a huge disappointment came too me immediately. They sold my name too a porno site. I’m greatly disappointed. They said I had too pay them 50K to get it back. Oh dear. So, I dropped my goal of starting an awesome Blog. I’m standing with my thumbs up my $&@. I really wanted too convert my Website too start my new Blog. I’m getting ready for a life changing experience (besides my cerebral hemorrhage). I’m retired and plan on traveling, the World. Can I somehow get my page back, since my name will be changing? I had my WordPress along with some nice, features. Can you please, give me advice? Cindy
    If you want too see some porn. 😂😂 My website was CINDYBALOURIS.COM. ENJOY? (I guess?)😂😂

    Reply

  51. Tamara Gonsor says

    Hi Michelle,

    I have read all your blogs about the “self hosting” topic. However, all that seems to be compared is blogger and word press, I am still very confused. I really want to make this work and set myself up right the first time. I have a blog on WIX currenlty, have my own domain but maybe this is why my blog is not so recognized.
    There are so many platforms these days, so many that my head spins. For example Shopify is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms. I have worked on many WP sites but I am far from fluent in coding, or website design, which is much needed in a word press platform. In fact, I have found WP to be very hard (not user friendly at all) and very expensive to get someone to help. I very much want to start blogging and take your course.
    With having very little money to get this all started is WP really the only option?
    Is WP the only platform that allows “self hosting”? In my google search, this topic is not well discussed.

    Thank you kindly, Tamara

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      WordPRess is simply the platform I prefer and am used to. I find it easy to use, and once your website is designed, there’s really not much to it. There are other platforms, but if I were to choose a second choice, that would be Squarespace. I haven’t heard very many good things about Wix from their current users.

      Reply

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