Track The Progress Of Your Migration
Next, you can either wait for an email from the DreamHost team or watch the progress of the migration in your WordPress dashboard. This will let you know when your migration is complete.
Additionally, if there are any issues with your migration, youll receive the relevant information on this screen.
Installing The WordPress Importer
The first step of the migration process involves your self-hosted WordPress site so go there first and log into your admin dashboard.
Next, go to the Tools tab and click on Import, then on the Install Now button under WordPress on the list.
Install Now
When you see a message at the top of the page which states that the Importer was installed successfully, you can switch to your original blogs admin dashboard to export your content.
Check Your Site For Any Errors
If you followed all of the instructions, the content of your site should look exactly the same. But its still a good idea to go through and make sure all the content, especially images, was successfully imported. Large sites can be especially prone to losing some content so double checking is never a bad idea.
If you are missing pictures, you can use a plugin like Image Teleporter to import your old photos. The Import External Images plugin used to be great for this, but it hasnt been updated in over 2 years now, so I cant guarantee that it will work 100% of the time. The reviews seem to indicate mixed success nowadays.
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Moving From Godaddy To WordPress
The first thing youll need is a WordPress hosting provider. You can install WordPress on virtually any web server on the Internet. However, some systems like ours makes the process so much easier.
Unfortunately, you wont be able to use the Import function of WordPress when transferring data from Website Builder. This is partially why it will take a bit of time to move your site.
Luckily, its not impossible.
Make Your WordPresscom Site Private
Because youre no longer using your WordPress.com site, now is a good time to make it private so that you dont have a perfect duplicate of your self-hosted WordPress site. To do that, head to the dashboard of your WordPress.com site.
Then, go to Settings Reading and choose the I would like my site to be private, visible only to myself and users I choose box:
And thats it for migrating your content from WordPress.com to WordPress.org! If you dont care about keeping your old search engine rankings and traffic, you can stop right now.
But if you do care about search engine rankings and traffic, youll need to complete the next section as well.
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Install Your WordPress Theme
While it is possible to move your content and retain a bunch of other functionality offered by plugins – it is not possible to automatically migrate your theme, custom fonts, or plugins you have used with WordPress.com.
Even with countless possibilities, you may want to be consistent in the eyes of your visitors and use the theme that you have been using with WordPress.com, making your site appear as close as possible to its previous look. To accomplish your goal, you should look for the same theme, make the same configurations, and add the needed widgets and plugins. So, you were either using a free theme or a premium one that you purchased separately.
Why Migrate Your Site From WordPresscom To WordPressorg
To understand the benefits of migrating your site, we first have to take a closer look at the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
WordPress.com is a free hosting service. While it provides plenty of functionality, security, and support to get your site up and running, it does have limitations. For starters, you can only place your site under a subdomain. Meaning, the name of your site will be example.wordpress.com instead of example.com.
You cant remove WordPress.coms branding or ads from your site. As a result, you cant monetize your site by adding your own ads. WordPress.com wont allow you to extend your sites functionality by installing plugins and, while you can install a theme, youre limited to those available in the WordPress.com directory.
For complete control over your sites appearance and functionality, you can host your own domain on WordPress.org. You will need to download the software, pay for hosting, and manage a web server. In turn, you gain control over every feature on your site, including themes, plugins, affiliate links, ads, code, and third-party analytics.
Most site owners choose WordPress.org for its seemingly limitless functionality. If you need more customization and control to continue to grow your site, then follow this step-by-step guide to migrate your site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
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Can Hostinger Migrate A WordPress Site For Me
Yes, Hostinger can migrate your WordPress site for free. After you get a Hostinger account, access the Migration Requests page and click the Add request button. Go to the WordPress tab and insert the required information.You will need to provide your WordPress admin panels URL and login credentials, and the login information of your previous hosting account. After that, click on Check connection to verify the credentials.Once its verified, click Add request and Hostinger will migrate the WordPress site for you.
Moving Your Website From WordPresscom To WordPressorg
Wanting to take the plunge and move away from your WordPress.com hosted website or blog to a self-hosted WordPress installation taking your site along with you? The process isn’t as daunting as you may think. WordPress comes with the tools needed to do just that, with only a few mouse clicks.
The differences between the two variations, WordPress.com and WordPress.org, may only be 3 letters. However, both of them offer entirely different platforms for you and your website or blog. In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps of transferring a WordPress.com hosted website or blog into your new, self-hosted WordPress installation. Please keep reading and follow carefully.
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How To Move From WordPresscom To WordPressorg Using A Self
In this guide, I assume that you have already set up your new domain name and installed WordPress.org. If you havent done that yet, please follow my free guide on how to set-up WordPress.org to see exactly how to get a free domain name and install WordPress.org. I can even do the install for you for free, just submit a blog install request here.
If you already have a blog on WordPress.com and would like to move it to your own self-hosted domain using WordPress.org, this tutorial will show you how.
WordPress.com has several inherent issues that make it less desirable for many bloggers. The main issues are the lack of control and security, along with the inability to profit from your blog. If you have run into these issues, it is time to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
Make Sure All Your Images Are There
This is the part of the migration process where most errors tend to occur. If you happen to have a lot of images over at WordPress.com, some of them may not migrate properly and you could be left with a new blog with images, or faced with the possibility of having to upload everything manually.
Now, were not saying this happens all the time, but since its been known to occur, were going to introduce you to a handy little plugin which can help you in this scenario. Import External Images analyzes the code of your posts, pulls the accompanying images if it detects linking to sources outside of your site, then it uploads them to your local install and voilà youre fully migrated.
Using this plugin should be a cinch, but just in case, feel free to take a look at How to Import External Images in WordPress, which is a tutorial focused on the plugin itself written by the folks over at WPBeginner.
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Before You Move To Self
To move from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress, youll need to get the right hosting. With your WordPress.com website, WordPress.com was your host, so, as the name implies, with self-hosted WordPress, youll need to provide your own hosting.
Hosting is the service that powers your website, providing the storage for its files and allowing visitors from across the globe to access the public-facing pages. Getting the right host is exceptionally important a bad host will result in a slow website with poor security at best — or, at worst, one that doesn’t load at all.
There are two types of hosting: Managed and shared hosting. Which is best for you will depend on your budget and how many visitors you expect to receive.
Managed hosting is the best choice for just about any serious website. A managed host ‘manages’ your sites speed, backups, automatic updates and security for you, so you have an experience similar to WordPress.com — but with the extra flexibility afforded by self-hosting. Managed hosts are very easy to use, and have a well-trained support staff that can assist with any problems you run into . The best of the bunch, in our opinion, is WP Engine, which offers pricing plans starting at $29 a month.
If you can afford managed hosting, you should use it. Managed hosting offers a very similar experience to what youll be familiar with from WordPress.com, and provides peace of mind from the extra security, backup and support features available.
Migrating From WordPresscom To WordPressorg: Thankfully Not Rocket Science
WordPress.org gives you so much flexibility to customize your website. That alone is worth the hassle and small investment involved in making the move. And as you can see, its not rocket science.
Even without much technical experience, you can successfully do it in a short space of time, and without having to rack your brain.
Speaking of racking your brain, check out our article on the best WordPress Migration plugins.
These certainly help make migrating from WordPress.com to WordPress.org much easier.
Ryan Robinson
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Import Content To The New WordPressorg Website
To import your content, prepare the exported XML file from the previous section.
Migrating WordPress Site Manually
Manual migration requires transferring the site files and database and then editing the wp-config.php file. You can do so via the File Manager on your hosting control panel or a File Transfer Protocol client like FileZilla.
Despite requiring advanced technical knowledge and understanding of databases, this method is less prone to cause errors.
1. Backup Your WordPress Files and MySQL Database
First, you need to download all the WordPress files to your computer. Youll upload these files to your new hosting account later on.
After downloading your WordPress files, its time to create a backup of your WordPress database.
2. Upload the WordPress Files and MySQL Database to Your New Host
The next step of migrating the WordPress site is to upload the files you have downloaded to the new host.
Once thats done, upload the MySQL database to the new host.
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Import Your Content To The New WordPress Site
To import data to your new website, you need to have WordPress installed on your new site to continue moving the blog. Most hosting providers come with an easy 1-click installation that allows you to install WordPress at a glance.
Log into the dashboard of your new WordPress site by going to example.com/wp-admin. Then head over to Tools again and click on Import.
A new page will appear where youll install the official import plugin for WordPress. Scroll to the bottom and click on the Install Now link.
WordPress will start installing the plugin without requiring you to leave the page. After installing the plugin, the same link changes to Run Importer. Click on it to continue.
On the next page, youll be prompted to upload the file that youve already downloaded in Step 1. Click on Choose File and then select the .xml file. Then click on the Upload file and import button. WordPress will import your data from your local system in your new site.
Next, youll see two options , as shown in the screenshot below. WordPress allows you to choose which author you want to assign free blog posts.
Either create a new user profile and assign all the imported posts to an original author or assign the posts to an existing author profile.
Dont forget to check the box to keep your posts from breaking. This also helps with importing all media files from the WordPress.com site.
Export Your Website Content From WordPresscom
Once youve verified that you can log in to your new WordPress.org website dashboard, switch to your WordPress.com website and log in to your dashboard. From that dashboard, click on the Settings item on the left-hand-side menu.
Next, find the Site Tools section, and click on Export.
Although you can choose to export the individual elements of your site, choosing the Export All option is the recommended approach. Once the export job has finished, you can download the file by clicking on the download link. Be sure to save the file where youll remember it, such as on your computers desktop or in a personal folder.
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