on blogging

How to migrate your WordPress.com site

11 September 2020 / 8 Comments

I’ve finally bit the bullet and transferred my WordPress.com blog to self-hosted WordPress! While I’m loving it so far, the process was a little daunting, so I thought I’d share the steps required in site migration and the key resources I used. Please come and share your own experiences or ask me any questions you like!! →

Last month, I finally bit the bullet and migrated my WordPress.com website / blog to self-hosted WordPress! Like many newbies, I looked into WordPress.com versus WordPress.org when I first started out three years ago and was too daunted by the self-hosted option to give it a shot. But more recently, I started getting frustrated by the limitations of WordPress.com. I felt ready to take the leap into something new, and you know what? I’m loving it so far!

There are a number of advantages to having a self-hosted site, in addition to the greater ownership it affords (read more here). What appealed to me most was the ability to install themes and plugins and customise to my heart’s content—without having to pay through the roof for a WordPress.com Business Plan. The migration process was a little daunting, so today I wanted to share with you the main steps required, and the key resources I used along the way. Please feel free to ask questions!!

Choose a new web host

The first thing you need to do when moving your site to self-hosted WordPress is to choose a new web host. Web hosting is the place where all the files of your website actually live (learn more here); up until now, WordPress.com has been your web host. I went with Bluehost, which seems to be the most widely recommended host to use with WordPress, but if you want to do more research check out the links below:

Install WordPress & customise theme

Once you have signed up to a web hosting plan, you will need to download and install the WordPress software. Some web hosts, including Bluehost, do this for you automatically. When WordPress is installed, you can then select a theme from the WordPress.org theme directory or purchase from another site and upload. Note that themes and widgets cannot be moved from your WordPress.com site, so this step is important. For more information, refer to the links below.

Export content from WordPress.com

The next big step is then exporting the content from your current WordPress.com site. In the WordPress.com dashboard, go to My Site → Tools → Export where you can select what content you wish to export. This will download as an XML file, or perhaps multiple XML files in a zip folder depending on the file size. I didn’t find that the Export All option worked very well for me (i.e. a lot of files got missed), so I ended up exporting Posts, Pages and Feedback separately. Full instructions are available below:

Import content to WordPress

Now that your content is exported from WordPress.com, you need to import it into your new site. In the WP Admin area of your new self-hosted WordPress site, go to Tools → Import → WordPress and install the WordPress Importer plugin if it isn’t already installed. You can then upload the XML files that you exported from WordPress.com.

The import process didn’t go so well for me at first, with lots of blog posts being skipped. When I identified what posts were missing, I went back to WordPress.com and re-exported the content from those months and that seemed to fix the problem. Note that media doesn’t migrate that well either, unfortunately and there may be a need to upload images to the new site manually. Full instructions for the import process is available below:

Transfer your domain

If, like me, you had a custom domain name (URL) prior to your site migration, then you’ll probably want to transfer the domain to your new site. This process sounds a little complicated, but I actually found it very straightforward. Essentially, you need to (1) prepare your domain by reviewing contact information and disabling privacy, (2) update the domain’s name servers, then (3) initiate the transfer. The sites below do a very good job of explaining the required steps:

Migrate subscribers & statistics

You may wish to migrate your current subscribers and statistics to the new site. To do this, you first need to install and activate the Jetpack plugin. There is a specific tool you can use to transfer your subscribers yourself (see below), but to have your statistic transferred to your new site, then you need to contact the WordPress.com support staff (see below). Unfortunately, there is currently no way to transfer your WordPress.com likes to your new site.

The final touches

You should now be set and ready to go with your new website! I’m still learning myself, and there have been a few minor issues crop up over the last few weeks that don’t seem to be widely documented in the resources I’ve provided above. Based on my experiences, here are a few more things you should look into:

  • Set WordPress.com site to private: One thing I noticed was that once my domain had been transferred to Bluehost, my old site defaulted to the free WordPress.com domain (for me, that is rebeccaalasdair.wordpress.com). Since I didn’t want the old site to be publically visible, I simply set the site to private. Confusion avoided!

  • Visibility on the WordPress.com Reader: Supposedly, if a self-hosted site is connected to WordPress.com with the Jetpack plugin (which mine is), then blog posts should still be discoverable in the WordPress.com Reader. I’ve received feedback from a few followers recently that my posts haven’t been showing up in the Reader, or that notifications had been disabled. I haven’t found a solution to this one yet, but I’d be interested to hear if any readers here have experienced similar issues?

Have you ever conducted a site migration? Are you considering it? What concerns you and what additional information would you like to know? Ask me anything!

I'm an Australian indie author who hoards books, loves dogs and coffee, and has a tendency of staying up all night!

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8 Comments

    • Rebecca Alasdair

      14 September 2020 at 10:20 pm Reply

      It can be cost effective, depending on what features you’re after! You still have to pay for web hosting if you have a self-hosted site, so its not free.

      But to put things in perspective, my hosting plan with Bluehost costs about the same as a Premium plan with WordPress.com (but you get a MASSIVE discount for your first term of 1-3 years). The difference is you can do much more. You can upload themes, use plugins etc…which are features only available with WordPress.com’s Business Plan, which costs more than three times the Premium Plan!!

      If you don’t want all those features, then it may not make a massive amount of difference. Happy to answer any questions you have, though I’m by no means an expert!! 😂

  • Energyflux2012

    24 September 2020 at 4:01 am Reply

    I’ve looked into this before, but I was always daunted by it myself. Money is tight for me, so I’m wondering about the cost per year versus my current Personal plan on WordPress.

    Glad to see you’ve made the leap to Bluehost. It looks great.

    • Rebecca Alasdair

      24 September 2020 at 5:10 pm Reply

      I was most definitely daunted, and there were a few fraught moments during the process itself, but sometimes you’ve just got to take a leap right? I’m glad you like the new site!

      If you have a Personal plan on WordPress.com, that’s probably still cheaper in the long run. My hosting plan currently costs about the same as the Personal plan right now, but that’s because you get a massive discount for your first term (you can choose 1-3 years). After that, price goes up unfortunately. At the end of the day you have to weigh up affordability vs capability!

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