How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Ok so you've been a user of WordPress.com

for a while now. Things have been pretty nice

so far, but you've come to a point where

you're ready to go beyond WordPress.com.

You want to install plugins and customize

your themes. You want to really start

monetizing your site and be in full control.

Well you are at the right place. While today's

article won't discuss the differences between

WordPress.com and WordPress.org

, we will take a look at a question that a lot of

users have been asking us: how to move your

existing WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted

WordPress.org site. In this step by step

tutorial, we will show you how to properly

move your blog from WordPress.com to

WordPress.org. We will cover how to transfer

all of your WordPress.com content to a

WordPress.org site (yes this include images).

We will also cover how to keep all of your

search engine rankings along with how to

redirect your existing users to your new site.

Are you ready? Let's start transferring your

WordPress.com blog over to your new self-

hosted site.

Things You Need Before You Start

You will need to have a domain name and a

good web hosting company that knows

WordPress. We highly recommend that you

use Bluehost because they will give you a free

domain and 50% off their hosting plan

(special for WPBeginner users). Bluehost is

also an officially recommended hosting

provider of WordPress.

If your WordPress site already has a custom

domain name, then don't worry. We will cover

that as well. Lastly, you will need access to

your WordPress.com account, so you can

easily move all of your posts, pages, images,

comments, and other data over to your self-

hosted WordPress site.

Before you get started with this migration

tutorial, we want to let you know that we can

migrate your site for FREE as part of our Free

WordPress Blog setup service. This will be less

hassle for you, but if you are someone who

likes learning and doing things yourself, then

follow our step by step tutorial below.

Step 1: Exporting Data from WordPress.com

Sign in to your WordPress.com account and

go to your blog's Dashboard. Click on Export

under Tools menu.

Clicking on the Export tool will take you to a

new page where you will be asked to choose

between Free or Guided Transfer.

Choose the Free option by clicking on Export.

On the next screen you will be asked which

data you want to export. Select "All Content"

and press the Download Export File button. An

XML file will be downloaded in your computer

which will contain all of your posts, pages,

images, comments, custom fields, categories,

tags, navigation menus and other information.

Step 2: Setting up WordPress

Now that you have exported your

WordPress.com data, the next step is to set

up a fresh WordPress install on your web

hosting. WordPress is very easy to install, and

it only takes a few clicks. We have a step-by-

step tutorial on how to install WordPress

within 5 minutes . Once you have installed

WordPress, it is time to import your content

into your new self-hosted WordPress website.

Step 3: Importing Content into Self Hosted

WordPress Site

To import your old content from

WordPress.com to your new site, you need to

click on Tools » Import option in your self-

hosted WordPress.org dashboard.

Next click on WordPress. You will be asked to

install the WordPress Importer plugin. Once

you install it, activate and run the importer

plugin. It will take you to a screen where you

will be asked to upload your WordPress.com

XML file that you downloaded in step 1 of this

tutorial.

Note: if your file size is larger than 2MB, then

you have two options. One is to ask your web

hosting company to increase that limit

temporarily, so you can get on with the

process. The other option would be to split

your file by using a WXR file splitter.

When you start importing, you will have the

option of assigning your old content to a

current user or create a new user. You'll also

have the option of importing your old

attachments (you want to make sure that you

check this box to ensure that your images are

imported).

If you took the optional step of exporting your

old links/blogroll, then you should take this

time to import them. The process is pretty

much the same as above. Go to the Import

page from the Tools tab, click on Blogroll,

install the plugin, choose the location of the

exported link/blogroll file and import it.

Step 4: Setting your WordPress.com blog to

private

The final step would be to set your

WordPress.com blog to private. If you don't

want to redirect your old users to your new

site, then go ahead and follow this step. Go to

the Reading page under Settings tab, from

your WordPress.com Dashboard and select the

last option, "I would like my blog to be private,

visible only to users I choose" .

Attention: If you have been writing for

sometime, and you have a loyal audience,

then it does not make sense to leave them

hanging. Furthermore, if your blog has been

out there for a while, then chances are that it

is indexed in Google and other search engines.

You should keep all the search engine juice

and easily redirect your old users to your new

blog.

Step 5: Redirecting Visitors and Preserving

SEO

Redirecting users to new location with a 301

header is the standard solution to keep search

rankings while moving a site from one location

to another. Since you don't have access

to .htaccess on WordPress.com, you can not

make any changes by yourself to retain search

engine rankings. However, WordPress.com

offers a paid upgrade, Offsite Redirect, which

provide this functionality. Go to

WordPress.com blog's dashboard and click on

the Store menu item. The upgrade you are

looking for is called Offsite Redirect. At the

time of writing this tutorial, this update was

reasonably priced at $13 USD per year. This

upgrade provides 301 redirect which allows

your site's visitors and search engines to be

automatically redirected to your new site.

Some of you will ask how long should I keep

paying for this Offsite redirect feature? The

answer is for as long as you want to. However,

we personally think that 2 years would be

enough time for your old users to memorize

your new domain name

If you are changing domains, then another

thing you want to do is update all in post

URLs. If you ever inter-linked your posts, then

those links have to be updated. Use our article

on how to update URLs when moving your

WordPress site

.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We wrote this article in January 2013 and

since then we've received tons of great

questions. A lot of which we've answered via

email or in comments, so thought it would be

nice to compile it at one place where everyone

can see them.

What happens with my WordPress.com

Subscribers?

Thankfully, WordPress.com allows you to

migrate your subscribers with one condition.

You must use Jetpack plugin which adds the

same subscribe functionality that you had at

WordPress.com. Once you install and activate

the Jetpack plugin, you would need to contact

the WordPress.com team and ask them to

migrate the subscribers for you. Our hope is

that in the later versions of Jetpack, this will

become easier and users will be able to do it

themselves.

Can you help me transfer from WordPress.com

to WordPress.org for FREE?

Absolutely. We offer migration from

WordPress.com as part of our free WordPress

blog setup service. If you need our assistance,

then simply signup. It's free

What are the costs of switching to

WordPress.org?

WordPress is free. However, there are some

minimal web hosting costs. We recommend

that you read this article on: Why is

WordPress free? What are the costs and what

is the catch?

Will my images break?

No they will not. When you transfer using the

import file, all attached images are

downloaded and the link is updated. However

there is one caveat that we noticed. If your

image URL starts with files.wordpress.com,

then they will not be converted. If you notice

that the image URL has not changed and still

points to WordPress.com, then we recommend

that you use import external images plugin,

and it will take care of that.

I registered my domain through

WordPress.com, can I still move?

Yes you can. WordPress believe in empowering

users and giving them full control of their

content. If you already have a domain name

through WordPress.com, then all you need is a

web hosting account. We recommend that you

setup with Bluehost or any of these other

WordPress hosting providers. During the

signup phase, you will be asked do you have a

domain or want to register a new one. Simply

select the option that I have a domain name,

and insert the domain that you registered at

WordPress.com. Next thing you would have to

do is change the nameservers to point to the

hosting provider. We're able to assist with this

as part of our free setups service. You can

also ask your web hosting provider for

support.

Will my website go down when I switch?

If you do it correctly, then NO. The method

we've suggested above will ensure that your

website never goes down. If you're worried,

then know that we are here to help. You're

welcome to use our free setups service at

anytime.

We hope that you found our guide on

switching from WordPress.com to self-hosted

WordPress.org to be helpful. If you have any

questions, then please let us know by leaving

a comment below.