Quick answer: To move from Blogger to WordPress, export your blog as an XML file from Blogger’s settings, install WordPress on your own hosting, and use the Blogger Importer under Tools, then Import. For Tumblr, use the Tumblr Importer, which connects to your account through a Tumblr app key. After importing, bring images into your own media library, match or redirect your old URLs, check your categories and tags, and tell Google about the move so you keep your search traffic.
Blogger and Tumblr are good places to start a blog. They are free, quick to set up and need no maintenance. But as a blog grows, or as a business starts to rely on it, their limits start to show. You have little control over design, few options for SEO, limited ways to add forms or shops, and your content sits on a platform you do not own.
Self hosted WordPress fixes those problems. The move itself is quite manageable, as long as you plan the parts that most people miss: images, URLs and redirects.
Before you start
Decide on your domain
This decision shapes the whole migration.
- You already use a custom domain (for example
blog.yourbusiness.comoryourbusiness.compointing at Blogger or Tumblr). This is the easiest case. You keep the domain, point it at your new hosting, and set up redirects from the old URL patterns to the new ones. Your links and rankings carry over well. - You use a free subdomain (
yourblog.blogspot.comoryourblog.tumblr.com). You cannot point that subdomain at new hosting, because Google or Tumblr controls it. You will move to a new domain and use workarounds to send visitors and search engines across. Some ranking signals may take time to follow.
If you are on a free subdomain and your blog is still small, the sooner you move, the less you have to lose.
Set up WordPress
Choose a host, install WordPress (many hosts offer one click installs) and pick a theme. Set your permalinks under Settings, then Permalinks, before importing anything. More on choosing the right structure below.
Take a full backup
Export everything from the old platform and keep a copy, even after the move. On Blogger, also save a copy of your template if you have customised it.
Migrating from Blogger
Step 1: Export your blog
In Blogger, go to Settings, then Other, and choose “Back up content” (shown as “Export blog” in some versions). Save the XML file it gives you. This file contains your posts, pages, comments and labels.
Step 2: Import into WordPress
In WordPress, go to Tools, then Import, and choose Blogger. WordPress will offer to install the Blogger Importer plugin. Activate it, upload your XML file and run the import.
You will be asked to assign the imported posts to a WordPress user. Create authors first if more than one person wrote for the blog.
The importer brings across:
- Posts and their publish dates
- Comments
- Labels, which become WordPress categories
- Drafts, if you choose to import them
Step 3: Check the results
Compare the post count in WordPress with Blogger. Open a sample of posts, especially older ones and ones with embedded videos or unusual formatting, and check they display properly. Blogger’s editor sometimes adds a lot of inline styling and extra line breaks, which can need tidying.
Review your categories. Blogger blogs often have dozens of labels used once or twice. This is a good chance to merge them into a smaller set of categories and convert the rest to tags.
Migrating from Tumblr
Step 1: Register a Tumblr app
The Tumblr Importer connects to your account through Tumblr’s API. In WordPress, go to Tools, then Import, and choose Tumblr to install the importer. It will ask for an OAuth consumer key and secret. You get these by registering a free application in Tumblr’s developer area. The importer’s instructions tell you which callback URL to enter.
Step 2: Connect and import
Enter the keys, authorise the connection and choose which Tumblr blog to import. Large blogs can take a while, so leave the import running and check back.
Step 3: Understand what changes
Tumblr is built around different post types: text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video. The importer maps these to WordPress post formats where it can. Whether they look good depends on your theme’s support for post formats, so check examples of each type.
Some things do not transfer:
- Notes, likes and reblogs are part of Tumblr’s network and stay there
- Reblogged posts come across as posts on your blog, so review them and remove ones you did not write
- Tumblr’s comments, if you used a third party system such as Disqus, need to be migrated through that service
Tags come across as WordPress tags.
Bring your images home
This is the step most often missed. After importing, your posts may still load images from Blogger’s or Tumblr’s servers. They look fine today, but you do not control those files. If the old blog is deleted, or the platform changes its image addresses, your posts lose their pictures.
Use a plugin that finds external images in your posts, downloads them into your WordPress media library and updates the links. Several free plugins do this. Run it in batches on large blogs, and check a few posts afterwards. While you are at it, add descriptive alt text to important images.
Keep or redirect your URLs
Every post on your old blog has a URL that may have links pointing to it and rankings in Google. Losing those URLs means losing that value.
Blogger URL structure
Blogger post URLs look like /2015/06/post-title.html. If you are keeping your custom domain, you have two options:
- Match the structure. Set WordPress permalinks to
/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.htmlso new URLs mirror the old ones. Check carefully, because Blogger shortens long slugs and they may not match exactly. - Use a cleaner structure and redirect. Set permalinks to something like
/%postname%/, then use a redirect plugin such as Redirection, or rules on your server, to send each old URL to its new home with a 301 redirect.
Also redirect Blogger’s label pages (/search/label/name) to the matching category pages, and the old feed address to your WordPress feed.
Tumblr URL structure
Tumblr post URLs look like /post/123456789/post-title. If you keep your custom domain, create redirects from these to your new URLs. A redirect plugin that supports pattern matching makes this easier, or you can map each post individually if the blog is small.
If you were on a free subdomain
You cannot set up true server side 301 redirects from blogspot.com or tumblr.com. Options include:
- On Blogger, plugins for WordPress provide code to paste into your Blogger template that sends each visitor to the matching post on your new site. It is not as strong as a 301 redirect, but it helps visitors and search engines find the new pages.
- On Tumblr, you can edit the theme’s HTML to add a canonical link or redirect code, and post a clear notice about the move.
In both cases, keep the old blog live rather than deleting it, at least until traffic and rankings have settled on the new site.
Tell search engines and readers
- Add the new site to Google Search Console, submit an XML sitemap and watch for crawl errors. Our Search Console setup guide walks through it.
- Use Fetch as Google on a few key pages to check they render correctly.
- Update your feed. If readers subscribe through FeedBurner, point it at your new WordPress feed so subscribers move with you.
- Update profiles and links you control, such as social profiles, email signatures and directory listings.
- Contact sites that link to your most popular posts and ask them to update the link.
After the move
Use the move as a chance to improve, not just copy.
- Speed. Choose a lightweight theme and compress images. Our guide to WordPress speed optimization has practical steps.
- SEO basics. Install an SEO plugin, write proper titles and meta descriptions for your most visited posts, and set up a sitemap.
- Security and backups. Self hosting means you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Set up automatic backups and keep WordPress, themes and plugins updated.
- Prune and improve. Old, thin posts can be updated, merged or redirected.
Common mistakes
- Importing before setting permalinks, then changing them afterwards and breaking URLs
- Leaving images on the old platform
- Deleting the old blog straight after the move
- Forgetting to redirect label, tag and feed URLs
- Not checking imported posts for broken formatting or embeds
FAQ
Will I lose my Google rankings moving from Blogger to WordPress?
With a custom domain and proper redirects, most rankings carry over, though there can be a short period of movement. Moving from a free subdomain is harder and some loss is more likely.
Can I move my Blogger comments to WordPress?
Yes. The Blogger Importer brings comments across with the posts.
How long does a migration take?
A small blog can be moved in a day. Large blogs with thousands of posts, many images and complex redirects take longer, mostly because of checking and clean up.
Want the move handled for you?
If your blog matters to your business and you would rather not risk your traffic, we can plan and carry out the migration. See how we build WordPress sites that turn visitors into customers.
