Ultimate WordPress Migration Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)

Is it time to give your website the upgrade it deserves? Whether you’re looking to move your website to WordPress or you want to optimize your existing site by moving to a new domain or host, we’re here to guide you.

At WPBeginner, we’ve helped over 100,000 website owners just like you through their migration process, ensuring a smooth transition.

In this article, we’ll show you how to migrate your blog or website to WordPress with little downtime and without losing SEO. We’ll also show you how to move your WordPress site to a new server or domain.

Our experience handling migrations from various platforms is what makes our guides so thorough and accurate. We’ve encountered and overcome countless challenges, which helps us provide the most effective strategies and solutions for website migration.

Why Migrate Your Website to WordPress?

Small businesses and individuals are starting websites all the time. They realize that having an online blog or website has significant benefits that help them grow their brand and keep in touch with clients.

However, many beginners choose a blogging platform other than WordPress. These platforms help them get started quickly, but as their websites grow, they begin to run into limitations.

For example, they may not be able to install plugins that add the features they need, there may be limited options in customizing the appearance of their site, or the platform may become too expensive as their requirements grow.

We believe that self-hosted WordPress outperforms all other blogging and website platforms.

WordPress is the most popular website builder powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. That’s because it’s powerful, easy to use, affordable, and the most flexible of all available blogging platforms, giving you control over every aspect of your website.

Here are all the reasons why you should use WordPress.

The good news is, that you can migrate your blog to WordPress and begin to take advantage of its power and flexibility.

How to Migrate Your Blog to WordPress Yourself

Migrating a blog isn’t as simple as just moving information from one platform to another. However, that’s definitely something you need to get right, otherwise, you may lose content.

It’s also essential to choose a reputable WordPress hosting company that’s fast and reliable. Luckily, most hosting services will install WordPress for you automatically and free of charge.

You also need to make sure you don’t lose SEO so that your posts rank lower on Google. You should also set up an SEO-friendly URL structure for your future posts.

Now you don’t want your visitors or search engines to lose track of your posts because the old URLs stop working. You need to take care of this by creating redirects.

Besides these, there may be some additional steps you need to take to migrate everything over and improve your blog.

That’s a lot to keep track of, so we created specific step-by-step guides on how to migrate from your specific blogging platform to WordPress:

1. Migrating Self-Hosted WordPress to a New Server or Domain

You may already be using a self-hosted WordPress website and decide to migrate it to a new hosting service or domain. For example, you may decide to upgrade to a more reliable web hosting company.

You will need to move your WordPress files and databases from the old provider to the new one. If you’re not careful, then you may lose data, or take your website down and lose sales.

That’s why we created a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to safely migrate WordPress to a new host or server without any downtime.

However, if you are moving your website to a new domain name, then you have a little more work to do. This would be if you are changing the URL of your website from, say, johnsmith.com to smithconsultingservices.com.

In that case, you simply need to follow our detailed guide on how to easily move WordPress to a new domain.

2. Migrating From Blogger to WordPress

Blogger is a free blogging service by Google. It offers a quick and easy way to create a blog for non-tech-savvy users. All you need is a Google account to start a free blog on Blogger.

However, as your website grows, you will be limited to basic blogging tools and won’t be able to add new features. There are also not many ways to customize the appearance of your blog.

WordPress, on the other hand, gives you complete ownership of your website and allows you to add the necessary features to grow and monetize your blog. We have created a detailed side-by-side comparison of WordPress vs Blogger.

The good news is that WordPress is set up to natively import your Blogger posts. However, you will need to follow our instructions carefully, or your new blog’s URLs might not match.

If you have a free Blogger account, then you will have a website address that looks like myblog.blogspot.com. In that case, you should follow our guide on how to switch from Blogger to WordPress without losing Google rankings.

However, Blogger also allows users to connect custom domain names to their blogs such as myblog.com. If you have a custom domain Blogger blog, then you will need to follow our guide on how to move a custom domain Blogger blog to WordPress.

3. Migrating From Ghost to WordPress

Ghost is a minimalist blogging platform with features entirely focused on writing blog posts. It is available as a hosted platform, and also as software that you can install, though many users find installing it difficult.

While a simplified user interface can be a good thing, it also means your options for customizing Ghost’s features and appearance are very limited. This can become frustrating.

On the other hand, WordPress allows you to customize your site by installing plugins and themes. It is also much easier to install yourself. You can learn more about the differences between these platforms in our side-by-side comparison of Ghost vs. WordPress.

Unfortunately, migrating from Ghost is difficult because the default Ghost export file does not use a format supported by WordPress. So we decided to fix this issue and created the Ghost to WordPress Importer tool.

We show you how to use this free tool to migrate your blog in our guide on how to properly move from Ghost to WordPress.

4. Migrating From GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress

GoDaddy is one of the biggest hosting and domain name companies in the world. To help their many users get started with building their website, they offer a basic website builder tool called GoDaddy Website Builder.

Many users choose this tool because it’s a convenient way to get started. However, it is missing many of the key features of more powerful blogging platforms, as you can see in our detailed comparison between GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress.

This means that users will quickly realize its many limitations and want to move their website to a more flexible and powerful platform like WordPress.

Unfortunately, there is no export tool to move your site from GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress. That means that the process will be time-consuming and have a lot of manual migration steps, making it easy to make a mistake.

You’ll find every step clearly explained in our guide on how to move a GoDaddy Website Builder site to WordPress.

5. Migrating From Gumroad to WordPress

Gumroad is a popular eCommerce platform that allows users to sell digital goods online, such as games, music, courses, and videos. However, many users are looking to switch away from the platform because they have raised their fees to 10% for each transaction.

This fee does not include credit card processing or PayPal fees. Plus, an additional 10% fee is charged if a product is sold through the ‘Gumroad Discover’ feature or their ‘Global Affiliates’ program. That’s a lot of fees.

On the other hand, WordPress is free and doesn’t charge you any fee for the items you sell. Unlike Gumroad, it also lets you sell physical goods and you can use any payment gateway you want and promote your website freely.

You can easily install a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads to make WordPress the perfect platform for selling digital goods. We have even partnered with SiteGround, and they are offering special EDD hosting for our readers.

You can learn how to do this in around 30 minutes by following our guide on how to switch from Gumroad to WordPress.

6. Migrating From Joomla to WordPress

Joomla is a good content management system that has a lot in common with WordPress. For example, they are both open-source software written in the PHP programming language and use a MySQL database.

They also have similar requirements, which means you won’t need to change hosting companies.

However, Joomla is more complicated to use. It is also not as powerful or flexible as WordPress because there are fewer extensions and designs available for you.

On the other hand, WordPress is easier to use and offers tons of extensions and design choices. See our comparison of Joomla vs WordPress for more details.

Luckily, there is a plugin you can use to easily import your Joomla content into WordPress. We carefully take you through every step you need in our guide on how to easily move your site from Joomla to WordPress.

7. Migrating From Medium to WordPress

Medium is a good blogging platform for new writers. It allows you to publish your posts with very little setup. But because you don’t own the platform, content from other authors often gets displayed below your own story.

The platform is quite limited compared to WordPress. When you switch from Medium to WordPress, you will own your own blog and can add all the features you need using plugins.

Simply follow our complete step-by-step guide to help you properly move all your content from Medium to WordPress.

You can retain the look of your old blog by installing a Medium-style theme or go for a new blog design using one of the best and most popular WordPress themes.

8. Migrating From Shopify to WordPress

Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce solution that makes it easy for you to create an online store, accept payments, and manage your inventory, all from a single platform.

You don’t need to worry about the technical aspects of managing an eCommerce site, but it comes with slightly higher costs and limited control of your website.

On the other hand, you can turn WordPress into a full-featured online store by installing the WooCommerce plugin and customizing every aspect of your store. You can compare the differences between the platforms in our comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Unfortunately, migrating away from Shopify is difficult because it doesn’t provide an easy way to export data to a WordPress-supported format. So we built an easy importer tool to help you do the Shopify to WooCommerce migration for free.

We take you through the entire migration process step-by-step in our guide on how to properly move from Shopify to WooCommerce.

9. Migrating From Squarespace to WordPress

Squarespace is a website-building service that focuses on small business owners. It allows you to create beautiful websites using easy drag-and-drop tools.

However, compared to WordPress, it costs more and offers less scope for design and flexibility. And while it does offer a limited set of extensions and integrations, they don’t compare with the power and breadth of the WordPress plugin ecosystem.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to migrate away from Squarespace because it offers limited export functionality. Depending on what content you have on your site, you may need to manually copy and paste some content from your Squarespace website.

In our guide on how to properly move from Squarespace to WordPress, we clearly list the content that can be automatically exported, and the content you will have to move manually to successfully migrate your site.

10. Migrating From Tumblr to WordPress

Tumblr is a little different than other blogging platforms. It is a microblogging platform with social networking features like following other blogs, reblogging, and built-in sharing tools.

The platform is easy to use and comes with its own audience. As a microblogging tool, Tumblr makes it easy to quickly blog videos, GIFs, images, and audio formats.

However, unlike WordPress, Tumblr’s features are limited and cannot be extended. To learn more about WordPress and what you can do with it, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

If you’re thinking about migrating from Tumblr to WordPress, then you will be glad to know that WordPress can natively import your Tumblr posts.

However, there is a lot involved in website migration, and you’ll find all the steps in our comprehensive guide on how to properly move your blog from Tumblr to WordPress.

11. Migrating From Weebly to WordPress

Weebly is a well-known website builder platform owned by Square’s payment platform. It offers easy-to-use website-building tools for business websites and eCommerce stores along with free blog templates that you can add to your website.

However, that free plan has limited features and bandwidth, and upgrading to a paid subscription is expensive compared to top blogging websites. Besides that, Weebly’s blogging and SEO features are just not as powerful as other blogging platforms.

By contrast, WordPress can be hosted on any server and has all the features you can dream of like online stores, contact forms, galleries, portfolios, SEO, and more. When you compare Weebly vs WordPress you might start to think about switching.

The site migration will take about an hour, and it’s worth it. Don’t worry, we’ve helped hundreds of people switch with the step-by-step directions in our guide on how to properly move from Weebly to WordPress.

12. Migrating From Wix to WordPress

Wix is a popular hosted platform that lets you quickly create simple websites using a drag-and-drop website builder. You can add a blog using the Wix Blog app.

However, when you compare Wix vs WordPress you see that Wix has incredibly limited options, and adding extra features can become quite expensive.

For all but the simplest websites, WordPress is by far the better choice because it has a much larger range of themes and layouts, as well as a huge selection of plugins that add new features to your website.

Unfortunately, Wix makes it quite difficult to move your content away, but after reviewing various different ways to move from Wix to WordPress, we believe the easiest method is by importing your blog posts via RSS.

We show you how to do this step-by-step in our guide on how to properly switch from Wix to WordPress. On an average Wix blog, the migration takes around an hour.

13. Migrating from Webflow to WordPress

Webflow is a hosted website builder similar to Wix and Squarespace. It offers user-friendly design tools that make it easy to create a simple website. It also comes with built-in hosting and security, which is appealing to users who lack experience managing these elements.

However, Webflow has faced a lot of backlash recently for forcing large websites on their platform to switch to extremely high-priced enterprise plans. It’s also limited when it comes to customizations and integrations.

For more details, see our guide on why you should avoid Webflow.

Self-hosted WordPress offers a cost-effective and flexible alternative. By owning your website, you maintain control over expenses, scaling your hosting plan to match your needs and budget. Additionally, WordPress provides endless customization options through free plugins and themes.

Webflow makes it difficult to move away from their platform, but we went through the entire process to make it easier for you. You can follow our tutorial on how to migrate from Webflow to WordPress for step-by-step instructions.

14. Migrating From WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress

WordPress.com is a blog hosting service offered by Automattic, a company created by WordPress.org co-founder Matt Mullenweg. Basic blog hosting is free, and you can purchase additional options like a custom domain name, additional storage, and premium services.

This appeals to new users because no setup is required. However, compared with a self-hosted WordPress website, there are limited options to extend your blog. For example, you can’t use custom themes and plugins for customizing your blog.

You can learn more by viewing our comparison chart on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

If you’re ready to move from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress blog, then see our guide on how to properly move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Make sure you follow our steps carefully so you don’t lose data, visitors, or SEO.

After you migrate to a self-hosted WordPress blog, you may find you are missing some features you enjoyed on WordPress.com. Don’t worry, you can easily add those features by following our guide on how to get WordPress.com features on self-hosted WordPress blogs.

Special Offer: Our Team of Experts Can Move Your Blog for Free

Here’s a special offer. If you wish to migrate from Blogger, Medium, Weebly, or WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress website, then we can do it for you for free.

One of our expert team members will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from any of those specific platforms to WordPress without any risk.

There are just two conditions:

• First, you need to sign up for your new web hosting service using our link. This will make sure you get the best price on hosting.
• Second, your blog can’t have more than 1,000 posts. We can offer a migration service for larger blogs, but that will be a paid service.

Sound good? You can learn more on our Free WordPress Blog Setup page. We’ve already helped over 100,000 people, so get started now.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to migrate your website to self-hosted WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on when you should change your WordPress web hosting and our expert pick of the best WordPress migration plugins.

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