How To Move From Blogger To Wordpress

Been wanting to move from Blogger to Wordpress for some time …It’s finally done and only took about 20 mins work. If your not self hosting, Blogger is the better choice because you can monetize a Wordpress.com blog. That why I set up a Blogger in the first place. Later I started developing other sites and using the Wordpress.org install feature inside my hosting control panel (fantastico). I use Hostgator’s unlimited hosting, unlimited domains, unlimited everything deal for $7.95 which you can do what you like with. It soon became apparent that Wordpress was offering 1000 times more because it has an open source approach that results in a huge library of user created plugins that can make Wordpress do anything you could want it to do. Plus its a so much easier to theme and make it look sexy. Wordpress also makes it so much easier for people to comment on your blog. Luckily I did a few hours research on how to move blogger to Wordpress, because I would have taken the long road rather than the huge time saving shortcuts that I discovered. So for those of you in the same boat i will type up my checklist, but first here where my main problems/issues.

• I wanted to keep all my old posts, comments and user accounts.
• I didn’t want to use the same URL address (permalinks) for each Blogger post with its date style.
• I wanted NEW, cleaner, better SEO’d permalinks but wanted to keep all my back links and search engine ranking links (including PageRank) to each individual post.
• I wanted to keep my old feed RSS addresses for the new site.

And gee! It’s nice when things go smoothly.

How to Import Blogger to Wordpress

1. You will need a domain name
   • I already had 1to1million set up with Blogger, if you already have a domain you can skip to step #2 now!
   • Try and align your Domain name with the keywords that are currently giving you the most traffic.
     • Or use the Google Tool to find a keyphrase with some ‘Global Monthly Search Volume” and low “Advertiser Competition” and use hyphens to separate the words. Example: blogger-to-wordpress.com
   • If you register your domain with Godaddy just get to the checkout, avoiding all the up sells and use a coupon code like cjc749dom to get a discount.
2. You will need some Hosting
   • I already had an unlimited account with Hostgator, if you already have hosting you can skip to step #3
   • Getting an unlimited account means you can add unlimited websites, domains, Sub-domains and email addresses. With HG you can even get a free 1800 number and they have a great one click way to install Wordpress for you.
     • Access your cpanel (hosting account configuration page)
     • Click the “Addon Domains” button
       • Fill out the “New Domain Name” blogger-to-wordpress.com
       • Skip 2nd & 3rd Fields, skip to Password
       • Confirm, submit and add your details.
3. Now we gotta point your domain to your host where Wordpress will live.
   • Check your emails for the Hostgator “NameServers” addresses for your account, there will be 2 of them. NSxxx3.HOSTGATOR.COM NSxxx4.HOSTGATOR.COM
   • Log into Godaddy and go to Domains/MyDomains and click on your domain name.
     • You will see a link to change your nameservers on the right (it will take a while, take a break).
4. Now we will install Wordpress the easy way.
   • Back in your Hostgator cpanel, scroll down and click on the “Fantastico De Luxe” button.
   • In the left column, click on “Wordpress” / “New Installation”.
   • Pick your addon domain from the drop down list, fill out the fields and click through to finish.
5. If your nameservers have had time to adjust you can now access your domain.com/wp-admin and Import your posts from Blogger to Wordpress.
   • In your Wordpress backend click on Tools/Import
   • Select Blogger from the list
   • If your already logged into Google/Blogger, all your Blogger blogs will load so you can pick the one you want to import.
   • Click the import button and your done. Easy!
6. Now what about the links, backlinks and redirects from the old URLs to the new ones?
   • First go set your Wordpress permalinks to something better for SEO (search engine optimization).
     • Click on Settings/Permalinks
     • Custom Structure
     • type in… /%postname%/ or /%category%/%postname%/
   • To do the redirects from all the old Blogger urls to these new Wordpress ones we are going to use a Wordpress plugin.
     • Click on Plugins/AddNew
     • In the search box type… Blogger Redirector
     • Install the one from Sam Wong
     • *If you did not have your own domain already set up at Blogger then you will need to redo the search and also install the additional plugin from Espen Antonsen
     • Then go an activate them both: Plugins/Installed
7. For your RSS feeds just create an account at Feedburner and use the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin.
   • I was already using Feedburner so it was just a matter of installing the plugin and entering in my old RSS feed address.

*If you did not have your own domain already set up at Blogger and all your old posts have a blogname.blogspot.com URL, you will need to access your Blogger, go to Settings/Publishing » Custom Domain » Advanced Settings and add your new domain there. If you have a well tweaked blogger, then of course …You are going to have a long list of things left to do from, moving site analytic tracking codes, favicons, and sitemaps. If you are looking for the sexiest Wordpress themes on the planet, go check out Elegant Themes. Good Luck and I hope this helps move from Blogger to Wordpress smoothly.