How To Migrate Your Blog From WordPress.com To WordPress.org (4 Steps To Execute)
WordPress, a Big Software Brand in the world has evolved as a powerful platform for website development and management in the past years. While it releases a number of themes, plugins and other applications every year, not each of them is sufficient for each of us. Just take an example of WordPress.com and WordPress.org, both of them have a different set of users with different end goals. Unfortunately, most of the time people are confused between these two due to the similar name and stamp of one brand.
Today, we are here to highlight the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. In addition to that we will also explain how to move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
But before you start grabbing the large chunk of information laid below, I would like to make you learn about our client-focused web design company in Los Angeles - SFWP Experts.
Mostly popular around the world for delivering effective business development services, we have now become the first choice of clients for availing website development, modification, and maintenance services. If you run an online business, no wonder your website would be driving most customers to your company. So, it’s likely you will need website support services to keep it functioning properly and that’s where our role kicks in.
With that out of the way, let’s start the topic discussion right away:
What Is WordPress.com And WordPress.org?
WordPress.com is basically a web hosting service that was launched by Matt Mullenweg with five hosting plans:
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Free – Zero dollars
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Personal – $48/ year
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Premium – $96/ year
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Business – $300/ year
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Ecommerce – $540/ year
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VIP – $5000 per month or above
Apart from that, this platform also allows users to freely create blog sites for a small group of people. However you can extend the limitations by opting for paid plans listed above. One nice thing about WordPress.com is it takes care of software updates and backups of your site and you just need to relax.
Talking about WordPress.org, it is an open-source platform that is 100% free to build and manage a website. All you need to set up your website and make it available for your audience is a domain name and a web host. With WordPress.org you can build custom websites, large blog sites, eCommerce sites, membership sites and a fair few sites that you can think of.
Now that you know the actual difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, it’s time to make a choice between both of them for your blog site development. In case you want to hire someone to create your blog site and rank it on the top of SERP, our Los Angeles web design company will be the best option for you. On top of website design and development, we also offer SEO and online marketing services that will drive more visitors to your site and improve conversions.
Now, we will answer one of the most important questions:
Why Do You Need To Switch From WordPress.com To WordPress.org?
As I said earlier, WordPress.com offers limited resources to its free users for building a blog site. Though it provides a good starting point for beginners, soon they realize that they won’t be able to grow their blog very much with this platform.
Other than that, there are many reasons that turn WordPress.com users off such as not being able to monetize their blog properly, can’t upload external plugins to their site, and not having tools and features for building other types of sites like eCommerce and membership.
This is why WordPress.com users look for an alternative on the internet and what they usually come across is WordPress.org. They offer a lot of features to scale your site and carry out the desired experimentation. Like you can customize your site, add multiple pages and take its full control in your hands. That means, once you have built your blog website with WordPress.org, you can treat yourself as its sole owner who can make almost any changes to it.
Do you have plans to create an eCommerce site in the coming days? We suggest you choose WordPress to build and manage it with a lot of ease.
The big reason to do this is WordPress has got a specially designed WooCommerce plugin just to set up and run an online store. It has all the features and functionalities that you would expect from a good eCommerce site builder. In case you want to pay some professionals to do this job, it’s better to connect with the Wordpress developer experts team of our Los Angeles web design company and share what you want them to produce.
With that discussed, now it’s time to know what you will need before starting your website migration.
What You Need Before Starting The Website Migration Process
There are three things you will need to be ready with before moving your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org:
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A WordPress web host
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A domain name
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Your WordPress.com account
As far as hosting providers goes, we recommend choosing Bluehost over others because they are one of the biggest hosting companies across the globe. That’s not all, it is also recommended by popular software maker “WordPress”.
And to get a domain name, you can visit any one among GoDaddy.com and HostGator.com. However if you already have a custom domain name, just sign up with Bluehost and add the domain name of your blog in its domain section.
Speaking of your WordPress.com account, you will need it to transfer your website content including posts, pages, and image files to your new WordPress.org site.
In case you want to put absolutely new content on your newly migrated WordPress site, you can get into conversation with our Los Angeles web design company for providing you quality-rich informative content for your audience. Not just that, you can also approach us to leverage content marketing services to promote your products online.
Once these things are at your hand, you can begin your website migration:
4 Steps To Move Your Blog From WordPress.com To WordPress.org
Step 1: Export All Your Data From WordPress.com Site
To perform this, first sign in to your WordPress.com account and head over your WordPress dashboard.
Once you get there, you will have to click on the WP Admin option found on the left column. This will open admin area of your blog and you will see a lot of options on your computer screen.
Here you need to click on the Tools option and then Export.
Doing this will open a new page on your screen where you will be required to make a selection between two processes - Free or Guided Transfer.
Choose free option by clicking on the small, blue “Start Export” button at the bottom right of the page.
After you have done this, you will be asked what type of data you want to export from your WordPress.com site such as posts, pages, media, and all. Here, you need to select “All Content” and hit the “Download Export File” button at the bottom of the page.
Post that action, the exporter will download an XML file that will include everything ranging from your posts, and pages to media files.
Step 2: Install And Configure Your New WordPress Software
Next, install new WordPress software and then you can import your content to the new WordPress website.
Since WordPress is an easy to use application, it won’t take more than a few clicks to get your new site ready. However, if you have chosen Bluehost as your hosting partner following our recommendation, then WordPress will be automatically installed for your usage.
Step 3: Import Your Old Content To Your New WordPress Site
In this step, you will need to transfer your old content from WordPress.com to WordPress.org site. To do this, you will have to go to the admin section of your new WordPress site. Here, click on Tools > Import and then Install Now button located at the bottom of the page under WordPress name.
Your this action will allow WordPress to install WordPress importer and then you can click on the “Run importer” link to continue the process.
Just after clicking the above link, you will be sent to a screen where you will need to upload the XML file of WordPress.com that you have downloaded earlier.
Take note that if the size of your file is more than 2MB, you may ask your hosting company to increase that limit for that time to get your job done.
Alternatively, you can also split your file and then continue. WXR file splitter is one of the best tools out there to split your XML file easily.
Step 4: Make Your WordPress.com Blog Privately Accessible
If you don’t want your old readers to come to your new WordPress site, then you can go to Settings > Reading in the admin section of your WordPress.com blog. There you will find a “Site Visibility” section in which you have to select the last option that sounds “I would like my blog to be private, visible only to users I choose”.
However, we don’t recommend doing this if you already have a large audience who read your content.
The Endnote On Shifting of WordPress.com Blog To WordPress. org
So, walking through this article you got to know how to move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Just following these four steps will allow you to grow your blog site to a greater level. And that will result in more readers, more engagement and more revenue generation from your site. Not to mention, you will be able to enjoy a range of features at WordPress.org that were unavailable at WordPress.com. These features will help you to better establish your blog, customize it according to your visitors’ interest, and more importantly, improve user engagement.
Do you have any questions about blog migration from WordPress.com to WordPress.org? We want to be informed about them so that we can clear every single doubt you have. Beside this, if you are looking for a trusted professional partner to change your blog layout or make its UI intuitive, our organization SFWP Experts can fit your bill very well.
Our branded Wordpress website design company provides all the business development services you may expect from a good agency such as WordPress web design, web development, online marketing, SEO, and others.
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