As a business person, having a Blog (free or hosted) is mandatory. Be it a small business or a multinational company, blogging is essential and an integral part of your online marketing strategy. Blogs help position our brand in the industry and shows professionalism.
Why is WordPress better than Blogger platform?
The most recommended platforms for blogging are WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr. Professionally speaking, of these the best one is WordPress. Usually for business people prefer a self-hosted blog and WordPress helps you with that. There are so many things which you can do on WordPress and cannot do on the Blogger platform.
In Blogger the drawback is that even if you use your own domain name (Custom domain) there are high chances that if your blog has been reported as a spam then Google will delete it without prior intimation. This shows that with Blogger you have very little control over your blog. With WordPress you have more options to optimize your blog for the search engine whereas with BlogSpot you don’t have many options. WordPress offers various plug-ins and templates with which you can customize your blog and there is always the WordPress support which serves to be the easiest solution to all issues.
Why a self-hosted WordPress blog is better than a free WordPress blog-
A self-hosted WordPress blog is easy to use and you have full control over it because your blog will not be deleted if reported, which is a very good thing. You can also modify and upload custom themes as and when you want. It is necessary to have a good web hosting and initially it will cost you very less and increases gradually as and when your blog gains momentum. You will be able to upload any free, paid or custom plug-in. You can also prevent spam and create backups through various tools that are available. You will also be allowed to sell as many ads as possible on your blog. Having a self-hosted blog will help you retain your audience and the best part is that you get to keep 100% of what you earn from your blog.
Now let us get to the point. Do you have your own free WordPress or free blog in your hand now and want to migrate it to self-hosted blog? Here are few easy steps to follow-
How to migrate a free WordPress blog in to self- hosted domain without lose SEO Value
Step 1: Login in to your WordPress blog – Go to the browser and type your blog name (Example: your domain name – WordPress.com and add the extension wp-admin at the end and press Enter.
Step 2: You will be redirected to login page now. (See the image below)
Step 3: Enter your details and you will be redirected to WordPress dashboard.
Step 4: In the left side bar you have an option called “Tools”. Click on that link. The tools section will expand and you can see the option called “Export”.
Step 5: Now click on the Export link and you will get the two options: 1) Guided Transfer 2) Free Export. Choose the second one and click on the link.
Step 6: Now download the export file and save the xml file in your local system.
Step 7: Login in to self-hosted WordPress blog. If you don’t have any domain name and hosting, you can follow the steps here to host your domain and WordPress Blog in 10 minutes.
Step 8: Once you have logged in to your premium domain, you will get WordPress dashboard page.
Step 9: In the left side bar, you will get the “Tools” option, click on that you will get the option to import the file.
Step 10: Click on the import link and you will get list of importer in dashboard.
Step 11: Choose WordPress Importer and install the importer.
Step 12: Now activate the plug-in by clicking the link Activate the plugin and Run Importer.
Step 13: Click “Choose file” button to choose your xml file (which you have exported from your old free WordPress blog)
Step 14: Now assign the author or leave the space empty to import all posts under default author admin.
Step 15: After this, now you can access all posts and pages in your dashboard.
Note: Keep in mind that the transfer is done only for content, pages and post; and not for menus, plugins and widgets.
Once you have imported your old post content in to new hosted domain, don’t forget to redirect your old blogs in to new domain.
Do you have a blog in Blogger and want to transfer it to a self-hosted domain? Follow these easy steps.
Transfer your Blogger into the Self-hosted WordPress
Step 1: Login in to blogger.
Step 2: Choose the blog you want to migrate.
Step 3: Click the settings link which is in left side bar of the dashboard
Step 4: Click the “Others” link, you will be redirected to Import/Export page.
Step 5: Click “Export” option and your posts will now download in xml format. Save the file in your local system.
Step 6: Click the “Download” button to start download.
Step 7: Login in to self-hosted WordPress blog.
If you don’t have your own domain name, then register now
Step 8: Once you have logged in to your premium domain, you will get WordPress dashboard page.
Step 9: In the left sidebar, you will get the tools option, click on that you will get the option to import the file.
Step 10: Click on the import link and you will get list of importer in dashboard.
Step 11: Choose Blogger Importer.
Step 12: Click the “Install Now” button to install the blogger importer plug-in.
Step 13: Now click the “Activate Plug-in” & “Run Importer”.
Step 14: Click “Choose file” button to choose your xml file (which you have exported from your old free blogger)
Step 15: Now assign the author or leave the space empty to import all posts under default author admin.
Step 16: After this, now you can access all posts and pages in your dashboard.
Your blog is ready now in your new hosting domain. You can start writing your new articles for your blog or website.
Note: Keep in mind that the transfer is done only for content, pages and post; and not for menus, plugins and widgets.
Once you have imported your old post content in to new hosted domain, don’t forget to redirect your old blogs in to new domain.
Hope this post helped you understand How to transfer your free WordPress or Blogger blog to a self-hosted domain. If you have any further questions please do comment and let us know. We would be glad to assist.
This article was contributed by Karthik – Digital Marketing Head and Varshaa – Social Media Intern at echoVME
