Moving from Blogger to WordPress

By Julie Starr | Published: February 1, 2009

In January I moved from Blogger on blogspot.com to WordPress on my own domain and thought I would document the process in case it proves useful to anyone else.

I moved because I wanted more flexibility, the autonomy of having my own domain (so I wouldn’t have to move again and could use whatever content management system I wanted) and a chance to get to grips with WordPress, an open source content management system which I intend using for a couple of school projects.

By way of background, I use PCs, Vista, know only wisps of code and mostly have no idea what web developers are talking about.

I’ve written this for people like me. Corrections and suggestions welcome.

Research

1. Having searched for blogposts by people who’d already made the move, I focused on more recent ones. It appears that a lot can change in a year and older posts seemed to be referring to issues that were out of date.

I found this BlogHerald post a useful starting point. Some of the links are out of date but it helped me work out a rough running order for what I’d have to do first, second, third.

My advice would be to read a few posts from beginning to end before starting.

There’s miles of WordPress help in the WordPress Codex and forums.

Domain name and hosting

2. Bought my domain name (url, or web address) from a domain registration company. There’s plenty to choose from. Domain Central is Australia-based, reasonably priced and I find their website easy to use. GoDaddy in the US is cheaper but its website is like an obstacle course for me.

3. Signed up with hosting service Bluehost.  Hosting is where you rent space on a server - specialised computer – to keep the files required to make your website work: content management system, theme, stylesheets, images etc.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at hosts, starting with the ones suggested by WordPress and then local offerings. There are lots of them and it seemed like I could spend a year checking them out.

In the end I went with one that was set up for WordPress, appeared affordable, had loads of storage, unlimited hosting and a user interface that I could understand.

Generally you sign up for a hosting package and pay in advance for, say, one, two or five years. With BlueHost you can host as many websites as you like once you’ve signed up.

I made a point of trying out hosts’ Control Panels and I recommend doing so. The control panel’s where you find the tools to manage your files and email accounts and so on and it’s good to be able to find your way around easily.

Nameservers and FTP

4. Updated my nameservers – by going to my domain account and changing the nameservers to the ones given to me by BlueHost during the sign-up process (ns1.bluehost.com, ns2.bluehost.com).

This tells browsers where to look for your website content. It takes 24 hours or so to kick in and you won’t be able to do much until the nameservers are pointing to your host – they need to be talking to each other.

5. Downloaded FileZilla - a free FTP client -  to my desktop so I could upload files from my computer to my host’s computer.

If you haven’t used FTP before, it’s a doddle. It’s just like dragging and dropping files from one folder to another on your computer, only you’re moving files from your computer to your host’s computer.

Install WordPress and import Blogger blog

6. Installed WordPress (in my host server>domain root directory>Public HTML folder) using BlueHost’s SimpleScripts and signed up with WordPress.

A database was set up and installed automatically during the WordPress install. If you’re not using SimpleScripts, Fantastico or similar, this GNC Web Creations post might help.

If none of this makes much sense, the way I think of it is: files are stored in a database on your host’s computer and you use WordPress to manage the display of files on your website and create new content for it.

7. Went to Blogger and backed up my old blog (Settings>Basic>Export Blog) so I would have a copy to restore from if anything went wrong.

8. Logged in to WordPress (by going to www.yoururl.co.nz/wp-admin and entering username and password) and imported my Blogger blog using Tools>Import>Blogger.

This worked quickly and easily. (It doesn’t import images, though. More about that later). I did this before finding a theme or adding plugins so it would be easier to find and fix any faults associated with the import.

9. Noticed that all my Blogger tags had turned into Categories during the import, and used the Categories to Tag Converter (teeny link at bottom of Categories page) to turn them back into tags.

10. Noticed that all my imported posts showed Blogger metadata beneath them when I opened them using WordPress>Posts>Edit. LEAVE THE METADATA THERE. It’s essential for making sure the posts redirect properly when you put a redirect on Blogger.

11. Noticed that none of the comments made during the period I had Disqus installed on my Blogger blog had arrived with the import. I’ve logged the issue on forums and tried a few workarounds but still haven’t figured out how to import them. Oh well.

Set up WordPress, theme and plugins

12. Entered profile and user information in WordPress.

13. Browsed for WordPress themes – by searching in Google, mostly – and tried a few out. This took ages and in the end I just had to settle on something or risk wasting a year hunting for perfection.

Themes determine how your website displays – what typefaces are used, colours, backgrounds, shape and size of boxes, header, footer and sidebars.

There are zillions of free themes available but I bought one from Woo Themes which I liked partly for its flexibility, clean layout, big search box at top right, big RSS button at top right and video in the footer. And because they have a two-for-one deal.

14. Installed my chosen theme by downloading it from Woo Themes to my desktop, unzipping it, then using FileZilla to move the Theme files to my host’s computer (domain root directory>Public HTML>wp-content>Themes folder).

I later used FileZilla to move some images and a few plugins (they went in the Public HTML>wp-content>Plugins folder). That said, I normally use the WordPress plugin finder within the WordPress dashboard to install plugins, which is much simpler.

Plugins are bits of software that let you do more with your blog – like add user profile images, or widgets to your sidebar, enhance your blogroll, display images, show your Twitter tweets or Facebook profile and so on. They’re created by other WordPress users and offered for free. You can find plugins in WordPress>Plugins>Add New.

15. Filled in details in the Theme manager – with Woo Themes this appears at the bottom left of the WordPress Dashboard – to determine how many posts appeared on the front page and choose sidebar elements.

16. Created Categories to organise blogposts into (they work like sections on a news website and appear on the navigation bar above).

Tidy up

17. Spent hours going through posts and tidying them up – adding Categories,  deleting images linked to Blogspot and replacing them with new versions of the images uploaded to WordPress; replacing internal links to earlier blogposts of mine so they linked to the new blog, not the old; checking that posts and images displayed properly in the new theme.

There are quicker ways of replacing links I’m told but I got scared and did it manually.

18. Modified the theme in a few places to get things displaying properly and made frequent use of the Woo Themes forums which I found to be friendly and helpful.

There are forums for support in setting up your theme, and forums for help in customising it.

Note: most of the files you will need to open to modify your theme can be found in WordPress>Appearance>Editor  but for some you will have to log in to your host’s Control Panel and find them in your File Manager.

19. Added Archives and About pages.

Notify change of address and update RSS feed

20. Wrote a post on Blogger saying I was moving and would be putting a redirect on.

21. Installed and activated the Feedburner plugin on WordPress. I was already using Feedburner to manage my RSS feed.

22. Changed the origin feed at Feedburner.com to my new feed url so it would source my RSS feed from the new blog. Wrote a couple of posts on the new blog and checked the feed was working in my RSS reader.

23. Found my Feedburner ID and added it to my Theme manager details so I could activate Feedburner’s email subscription service.

24. Put a redirect on the Blogger site to direct users to the new blog. As I understand it, a 301 redirect is impossible from Blogger and after trying a few suggestions I followed this advice from Liberty Interactive and it worked fine.

25. Paused for breath.

I like WordPress. It doesn’t have the drag-and-drop simplicity of Blogger but more than makes up for it in flexibility, a wealth of third-party plugins for added functionality and a much smarter interface.

Overall, finding out how to manage each step took a lot of time but the move itself was simple enough. Plenty more to be done as time permits.

No regrets.

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  • http://www.kenmorrill.com/ Ken Morrill

    Your detailed explanation of a complex procedure is among the highest forms of blogging because it will help people for years to come, saving them time. What I gained from the article is the overall approach that can be applied to any move, beginning with research and ending with notification. Great job!

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Sincere thanks for your comment Ken. It’s rather an epic post, but then again it’s rather an epic process. Hopefully it will be of some help as you say.

  • http://www.snice.co.nz SNICE

    That’s a very good post, which I think a lot of people will find useful. It sure is a epic process, but I’m sure you will agree it was a good move. I’ve tried all sorts of CMS’s and I keep coming back to wordpress.

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Thanks Snice.

  • http://www.mayvelous.com mayvelous

    Hi Julie,

    Great compilation on all you’ve done to move to wp platform. Love the new theme, very clean and neat. You should try out related post plugin also.
    Anyways, just dropping by to say hello and hope you are doing well.

    Cheers.
    May.

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Hi Mayvelous, Nice to see you! Thanks for the comment and the related post plugin suggestion, I’ll check it out.

  • http://steveellwood.com SteveEllwood

    Nice post, Julie. I went through something rather simpler when I moved my *hosted* WordPress.com blog to use its own domain name. I’m *beginning* to think the added flexibility of self hosting could add something. Of course, because of the way WordPress runs, it’s easy to export – and with your own domain name, you can choose where you point it!

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Thanks Steve. I never had a blog with WordPress.com so have no basis for comparison. I think the thing that appeals to me about self-hosting on my own domain is I can change content management systems if I want to. So maybe I play around with WordPress for a year then have a look at Joomla. Or start with a blog and build more of a news site or help site, as the case may be. Time will tell.

  • http://ilike2photoshop.blogspot.com ilike2photoshop

    Nice tips, i’m considering moving to wordpress, but have yet to make the transition.

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Thanks. I like your blog. I’m often in need of Photoshop tips so thanks for the link.

  • http://makeundermylife.com Jess LC

    This is great! I am planning on switching my blog today and I think following these steps will make it much easier (I hope).

    Fingers crossed…

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    Good luck, Jess. Hope it goes well.

  • RaiulBaztepo

    Hello!
    Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
    PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
    See you!
    Your, Raiul Baztepo

  • Jonathan Mast

    You seem to have a good grasp of this topic so maybe you can help me slight off topic. I want to use wordpress but host it so that it is stored on my intranet away from outside searches. Short background we still run a software called Sharepoint 2003 the next version has builit in blog features. We want have that this year and the CEO wants to begin blogging.

    Or can I purchase my domain name and host on my company website and hide from general search options?

    Thanks for any insight.

  • http://evolvingnewsroom.co.nz Julie Starr

    I’m not the best person to help with this, sorry. The WordPress codex (help files) and forums might be a good place to look.

    I’d say you can download WordPress to wherever you host your intranet and set it up there, and I know you can hide your blog from web crawlers, but I couldn’t tell you how to make it work in an intranet environment. Good luck.