Blogger to Self Hosted WordPress Migration Complete Guide

Searching on web, you will get buckets of results on Blogger to WordPress Transferring methods. 

Almost are same but here I will explain in details so that you can get comprehensive idea: Whether you need migration or not, Advantages and disadvantages, Legit steps to landing on WordPress without losing organic traffic etc. 

When You Should Migration to WordPress

• You are not much skilled in coding and you need to update code or any settings you don't know how to do that. For example, you want to do SEO optimization yourself but you can't what is easier with WordPress Plugins. 
  
  
• You are afraid of content or blog deletion by Blogger. Yes, it happens now. I get messages regularly from several blog owners who are using Blogger. Because Blogger has strict Content Policy. If your blog or content violates any of them or report anyone, Safety team  or bot may delete your blog property. 
  
  
• You need to extend and scale up your website. Blogger has limitations. It is mainly for blogging. But now we need to scale up features of our blog like Membership, Selling Digital Products etc. In this case, moving to WordPress is the best solution. 
  
  
• Changing Permalinks of published posts and pages are prohibited in Blogger. But you need it. 
  
  
• You are willing to publish podcast and listed them to Google Podcast. And it is not possible, if you do that from Blogger platform. Because Blogger doesn't provide still now this feature, where WordPress has a lot of plugins that provide easily. 
  
  
• You have budget to purchase quality hosting or cloud service for running your website. You know Blogger provides free quality hosting service and if you move to WordPress, you must purchase Hosting/Cloud package from quality hosting storage providers. 
  
  You have also budget to hire expert to transfer your Blogger blog/website to WordPress without changing design and losing traffic. 
  
  You need also purchasing SSL Certificate which Blogger provides free for lifetime, but you have to renew it each year for WordPress. 

When You Should Not Migration to WordPress

• Your website/blog is getting organic traffic and you don't need to scale-up or any required features that Blogger doesn't provide. 
  
  
• You have not much budget for quality self-hosted Hosting/Cloud services, SSL Certificates, Hiring Expert cost etc. 
  
  
• You don't publish any content that violates Blogger content policy.
  

Advantages of Moving to WordPress

• Blogger has many limitations and owner of Blog/Website who are using this platform has no full control over their web property. In this case, Self-Hosted WordPress will give you FREEDOM! 
  
  
• Scaling up according to requirements is very handy in WordPress. 
  
  
• Flexibility of WordPress is much better than Blogger. 
  
  
• You will get a lot of Free and Premium Plugins in WordPress

Disadvantages of Moving to WordPress

• Cost of running your website or blog in self-hosted of course is paid. If you want to get same server up time, bandwidth in your WordPress, you need to pay at least 10 USD to 100 USD per month, which is free in Blogger. 
  
  
• It is security. Since Blogger is hosted by Google, when you are running your web property in there, you are getting 100 times more secured platform than self-hosted WordPress. 

Now take your decision - Do you still think, WordPress is your SOLUTION? Then Move! You are welcome to the new World! And take fragrance of FREEDOM! 

Best Hosting/Cloud Services for Moving to WordPress

• Cloudways - It is cloud based storage providers for WordPress. Minimum cost per month is $12. You don't need to purchase SSL. Because it provides FREE. From their pricing table, you will get overview of Bandwidth according to package. So select which one you need. 
  
  
• Hostinger - They provide cloud and hosting based storage for WordPress. Cloud servicing starts from $10 per month. They also provide FREE SSL. Additionally, the offer FREE Domain Name, Email Accounts. 
  
  
• Liquid Web - It provides quality Cloud servicing and as a result, cost is higher than others. They provides secured cloud platform with extra layers. And I found their support team is awesome. 
  
  
• NameCheap (EasyWP) - If you want best alternative of the above Cloud services with your budget to get almost same Bandwidth, Server Speed you got in Blogger platform, I  recommend this package. Really it is worthy.
  
  EasyWP is their dedicated package for WordPress solution. Remember, they don't provide full control over hosting. Because their expert ensures security of your website from their side. But you will get option to backup and restore website. You will get all of features that WordPress provides. 

Now you may think, why I am not recommending shared/managed/general hosting packages! 

Because, when it is matter of moving to WordPress from Blogger, if your website doesn't get quality bandwidth, speed, server up-time (Because maximum shared/managed hosting packages don't provide quality hosting service), it has chances to rank down your organic traffic from Search Engine. 

But if you find any hosting package that meets the quality about we are talking then it good news! Mention this hosting service in the below comment section. 

Now we will talk about the Technical Part of moving to WordPress from Blogger platform. 

If you aren't techy or skilled or you are willing to hire expert for these task completion, hire from Freelance Marketplace like Fiverr, UpWork etc. Or you can knock me - here. I have completed the same projects for several clients. 

Challenges of Blogger to WordPress Migration

After website/blog platform migration, we face the following challenges that should be solved carefully.

• Propagation Domain to new DNS (Domain Name Server) settings and connecting to Hosting or Cloud Storage.
  
  
• Installing WordPress and setup SSL.
  
  
• Prevent losing organic traffic.
  
  
• Keeping same design and typography.
  
  
• Fixing URL changing and 404 Error.
  
  
• Fixing 403 Redirection.
  
  
• Downloading External Images and Upload to each post. Because, in Blogger when we upload images it stores the uploaded images their server which belongs to bp.blogspot.com or blogger.googleusercontent.com domains, not our domains. 
  
  
• Image optimization with keeping ALT tag. 
  
  
• Adding Featured Image to each post.
  
  
• Publishing Pages again. Because Exported XML file from Blogger doesn't contain static pages. So we need to publish those pages again in WordPress
  
  
• Optimize Post Tags & Categories. 
  
  
• Update Contact Forms.
  
  
• SEO Optimization.
  
  
• Ads placement.
  
  
• Install previous tracking code.
  
  
• Resubmitting Sitemap and other settings to Google, Bing Search Console etc.

13 Steps of Blogger to WordPress Migration

After website/blog platform migration, we face the following challenges that should be solved carefully.

1. Backup Contents from Blogger. Go to Blogger Dashboard and select your blog. From Settings → Manage Blog → Back Up Content , export your contents and save to your Computer. 
   
   
   
   
   
2. Now design a custom WordPress theme by expert to keep same design or you can choose any free or premium theme. But I recommend to choose same design. After completing those tasks, proceed to next steps.
   
   
   
3. Updating Nameservers of Domain. Go to your Domain Provider Account and update the Nameserver of your domain to new hosting/cloud package. If you didn't purchase any hosting or cloud package, purchase before proceeding.
   
   If you are still using blogspot.com free subdomain then you need to purchase your preferred domain name with hosting package. 
   
   You will get two pointing ip address from your hosting/cloud package. 
   Example: If you are using Hostinger Storage, you will get the following IP address as NS (Name Server). 
   
   ns1.dns-parking.com, ns2.dns-parking.com
   
   
   
   Attached image is showing here the connecting domain (Registered in Namecheap) to Hostinger storage. 
   
   It will take time to propagate the updated Nameservers. Don't panic. Wait 2/3 hours. Then proceed to the next step.
   
   
4. Installing WordPress application. After domain propagation successfully, you are ready to install WordPress application from storage. 
   
   Maximum cloud/hosting providers now provide 1-Click WordPress Installation. It is really helpful. You need to find this option from Hosting/Cloud Dashboard. 
   

   

   First, Find out WordPress Application Option

   
   

   

   Then, Click to Install

   
   
   
   
   Attached image is showing here the WordPress installation to Hostinger storage. 
   
   While installing you will get option to put username and password for administration login. 
   
   
5. Installing SSL Certificate. You know already some hosting/cloud providers offer free SSL. You will get an option like installing WordPress from Storage Dashboard. Click to install. 
   
   It takes few minutes to connect successfully. 
   
   
6. Installing WordPress Theme. Login to your new WordPress website by visiting yourdomain.com/wp-admin address. It requires username and password you provided.
   
    Go to Appearance → Themes 
   
   
   
   Install your custom or purchased WordPress Theme. 
   
   
7. Importing Blogger backup XML file to WordPress.  From WordPress Dashboard → Tools → Import, Install Blogger. 
   
   
   
   
   After installing, you will see 'Run Importer' Option. Click on it and upload the saved Blogger Exported XML File. 
   
   
   
   
   
   You will get option to change Author name or assigning to new role the previous Author name. Submit and go! 
   
   
8.  Changing Permalinks. From WordPress Dashboard → Settings → Permalinks
   
   
   
   I recommend to choose 'Post Name' permalink pattern, though most of tech blogger recommend to choose 'Custom Structure' with date format. Actually, after imported you will not get same permalink address for each post. You will get 404 and 403 Errors. And you need to fix it manually or with help of plugins. 
   
   And 'Save Changes'. 
   
   
9. Downloading External Images and Uploading to each post. From WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New, search for 'Download External Images In Posts'. 
   
   
   
   You will see a lot of plugins. But I recommend this one. Install and follow their instructions to complete uploading images. 
   
   
10. Adding Featured Images to all posts. Featured Image is required to show thumbnail in archive posts page. Thought it is optional but I suggest to add this. 
    

    

    Those plugins are awesome as auto featured image thumbnail generator. First one is for featured image from Video and second one for which post has no setup of featured image.

    
    
    Several plugins provide automatic adding featured images from the first image of each post. But if you want to upload custom featured image, you can do that.  
    
    
11. Fixing 403 and 404 Not Found Error. It is most important task to prevent traffic losing. 
    
    I recommend "301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager" plugin to fix this error. By using this plugin, you can easily fix broken link errors. 
    
    
12. Installing additional Plugins. Final task is installing additional plugins you need. Example, you need to install SEO plugins, Contact Form, Analytics, Security etc. 
    
    Search on WordPress Plugin Explorer. You will get awesome free and premium plugins.
    
    
13. And don't forget to remove domain from Blogger dashboard and make this blog as Private so that none can visit your old blogspot blog. 

So finally, you have managed to move! Now I suggest to update your Google and Bing Search Console by updating Sitemap. 

Send social signal to your website. 

If you follow those steps perfectly, you will not loose your traffic. 

Disclosure: This article contains some affiliated links. If you purchase any hosting/cloud/domain through this links, we may get commission.