Blogger is a very widely used publishing platform, mostly because its strength lies in its simplicity and ease of use. It is quite easy to use, and is recommended for beginner bloggers who are looking for a quick and easy way to create a presence for themselves online. For bloggers who have created a WordPress blog, but are at a loss to maintain or modify it, they have a great option in Blogger. They can easily migrate their WordPress blog to Blogger without any hitch. In this post, we will talk about how you can shift from WordPress to free Blogger.
Normally, such a transfer isn't easy. Data needs to be imported from WordPress first, and then imported to Blogger. Since Blogger doesn't allow any data format except its own, there needs to be a conversion process that will convert WordPress exported files. Luckily, there's just such a utility available! Here, we will guide you through the simple steps. Following them, you can convert self-hosted WordPress blogs to Blogger, as well as migrate from free WordPress to Blogspot.
Step 1: Importing from WordPress
- Log into your WordPress account (for free WordPress users), and then choose the blog you want to convert into Blogger. Alternatively, you can log into your blog's dashboard directly by adding the /wp-login.php suffix to your blog's home URL (eg yourblog.com/wp-login.php or yourblog.wordpress.com/wp-login.php)
- Navigate through your WordPress menu, and find the Tools option. When you click on it, you'll see further options, among which you will see the Export option. Click on it.
- Click on the Radio Button next to 'All Content' under the heading 'Choose what to Export'. You can select only posts, or pages, or feedbacks, but it is recommended that you select All content to ensure maximum content is transferred. Then click on Download Export File, which will let you save the exported file to your hard drive. You have completed step 1 at this point.
Step 2: Convert into Blogger format
There is a useful little app that will do this job for you. To convert, visit this app's page, and navigate to the button in the middle of the content that says 'Choose file'. Browse to the file you downloaded from WordPress, and upload it here. Then click Convert. After the conversion, you will need to save the output file. This file is in Blogger-friendly format, and will be used inside Blogger.
Step 3: Import to Blogger
- The import process into Blogger is pretty straightforward. Simply log into, or sign up for your Blogger account, and click on Create a Blog link. I'm assuming you want to create a new blog for your new content. But if you want to, you can import into an existing blog as well.
- From the Dashboard, click on Settings >> Other >> Import Blog.
- Now, all you need to do is follow the simple instructions, and upload the converted file. You will be guided through a wizard that will import data from this file into Blogger. Once done, you will see all your posts from WordPress ready to be published!
Limitations
Although this is a really cool app, it has a serious limitation. You can only upload and convert a WordPress-exported file that is less than 1 MB, which is too inconvenient, especially if you have a large blog, or even a small blog with a size-able number of posts.
If you're disappointed about this, then don't worry! Because Muhammad is working on just such a tool that will allow users to upload a much larger WordPress file to convert into Blogger format. And this tool will be made available soon, so stay tuned!
Also, about the SEO requirements, well they are a bit more technical, so we'll be covering them in more detail in a future post. So try out this cool feature, and if you like it, then stay tuned for more posts and updates on our own tool for converting WordPress blogs into Blogger.
