Moving from Blogger to WordPress: My Guide for Avoiding Headaches

Making the move from Blogger to WordPress is one I’ve considered for quite a while, but I’d avoided it out of fear. I have a feeling that others may be doing the same, so I thought I’d share what I learned and hopefully reduce your fears.

First, let me explain why I made the move. Blogger is great but I was lacking the design control that I wanted. I was also lacking the ability to control what showed up on my page as well as I can with a self-hosted WordPress. If I wanted to promote a book or a product, Blogger limits those abilities. On the downside, a self-hosted WordPress blog does have costs associated with it for hosting that are avoided by sticking with Blogger or using WordPress.com

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, my guide:

1. Have a plan before you start.
   
   • Pick a hosting company. There are many to choose from, but for the most part there aren’t a lot of differences. You can shop around for price and somewhat for features, but they are all going to come close in the end (at least at this basic level).
   • Pick Your Theme. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of themes available for WordPress. Search around and find one that you like that fits with the feel of your blog. Most are customizable to a degree beyond the basic / standard look.
   • Make a List of all your Blogger Widgets – If there’s a design element you are using on Blogger, note it. If you are using a Text/Html widget then copy out the text/ html to a text file.
2. Create a Timeline
   • Lay out a timeline of what you need to do and when it needs to be done, in order of priority. This will help you stay on track as you proceed. Here’s the timeline I wish I’d followed:
   1. Set Up Your Hosting/ Domain Account  Account
      
      • If you plan to use a domain you already own be sure your host offers the ability to set up your new WordPress account on a temporary or  IP address, so that you can leave your domain pointed at your current blog until you are all set up.
   2. Install WordPress & chosen theme
      
      • Most hosting companies have a one-button install for WordPress, which is quite nice. Once you’ve installed WordPress you’ll need to install your chosen theme. If it’s one you’ve purchased or downloaded from somewhere you’ll just need to upload it in the zip file. I chose a Genesis based theme, which meant that I had two files to upload, the Genesis file and then the actual theme file.
   3. Import Blog posts & content
      • WordPress offers a built-in tool that will import your blogs, comments, & images from Blogger. Just select “Tools” on the admin menu and then “import”. You’ll see the Blogger option listed there. Just click it and follow the instructions. It may take a while to import all your content, and the importer might lock up a time or two. It locked up several times on me. When this happens you just need to stop it and restart it. It will not re-import the content it’s already imported.
   4. Customize theme
      • Now that you have your content you can play with your theme a little more easily. So, now is the time to set it up. Most themes will come with some sort of instructions (if needed) to help you get it looking like you want it (or at least like the example blog they provided). You can adjust things as you like.
   5. Setup Widgets
      • Some of the widgets you’ll likely want will come pre-installed in WordPress, however most won’t and you’ll have to go find the appropriate plugin to do what you want. In a lot of cases you’ll find several plugins that do the same thing, just a little differently. If you currently have a Blogroll on your blog, you’ll have to install the “Links” plugin as well as one of the available “blogroll” or “Rss display” widgets. Don’t be afraid to try different ones until you get the look that you want.
   6. Update feedburner.
      • Once you’ve got your new blog all set up and looking like you want, you’ll want to go update your feedburner link (if you have feedburner set up) so that those who subscribe to your blog continue to get your updates. Also, make sure you update your listing on Bloglovin’ and Feedly (if you use those).
   7. Setup redirection
      • Now this is the big one, and probably the most important because you want your readers to come find your new blog instead of continuing to visit your old blog and finding no new updates. There is a great plugin that will redirect your old blog posts to the correct blog posts on your new blog. As part of that you’ll have to revert your Blogger theme and once you do that you’ll no longer be able to access your old theme or widgets (so make sure you’ve already got all the info set up on your new blog).
      • Also note, that the blogger to WordPress redirection plugin does have some issues with certain hosting companies. For instance, I went with Hostgator and there is a known issue there that required me to contact support. Here’s the details on that issue.

If you are like me you’ll continue to play with and tweak your new blog until you are totally happy (never), and with WordPress there is just so much to play with, and so much you can do. So, have fun!