If you are using WordPress for a while and finally decided to migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, you are in the right place. In this guide, we will show you step by step guides to move your WordPress blog to WordPress.org.
Difference between WordPress.com to WordPress.org
The difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com lies between the WordPress hosting service that comes with them. WordPress.com gives you WordPress hosting for free. However, the downside of it is you will not have full access to all your site data and codes. Importantly, you will not get a custom domain as well.
On the other hand, if you pick a self-hosted service, you can host your Website using any of the Hosting Providers of your choice. In that case, you will have full access to your website. Most importantly, once you move to a self-hosted solution you can run Ads on your website for generating revenue.
Migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Migrating from WordPress.com to WordPress.org really means picking a hosting service and then moving your Website’s content to the new Web-Address. We are not going to talk about how to pick a hosting that best suits your requirements, we have a separate blog on that topic. Do make sure to check it out.
Recommended Reading: Best Managed WordPress Hosting Recommendation for Elementor
In this blog, we will show you how to move your Website’s content to your new web-address without losing any content.
Step 01: Export your WordPress Content
- Log in to your WordPress Website and navigate to your Website’s Dashboard. Now hover your mouse over the Tools option inside the Sidebar and click the Export option.
- The new Window will display a Blue “Download Export File” button sitting at the bottom. Once you hit it it will save your WordPress file to your local computer. Click on it, and WordPress will start creating an XML file for your WordPress Website which will be in WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) format. You can specify what kinds of content you want to export, in this tutorial we want to migrate the entire website, so we are going with the “All Content” checkbox. This will allow us to export all of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus, and custom posts.
Step 02: Get WordPress Importer Plugin
- Now log in to your new self-hosted WordPress Website, navigate to your Dashboard>>Tools>>Import. To import WordPress Content you need to install the WordPress Importer. Install the plugin. Using the WordPress Import tool, you can import content into your site from another WordPress site, or from another publishing system.
Step 03: Import your Content
- Now that you have the WordPress Importer installed on your Website, it’s time to import your WordPress data. Run the Plugin and hit the Upload file and import button.
Wrapping Up-Adjust Website Content Credentials
Once you have imported the WordPress content, its time to do minor tasks such as assigning authors to their posts. However this depends solely on you, if you are assigning a completely new team as you are moving your WordPress Website, you might want to reassign posts to new authors.
This doesn’t mean you will need to create user accounts, you can specify authors to posts by using a simple Author Drop-Down. Author credentials should automatically download with the Website’s Content. But you can manually do the download by specifying an author from the pulldown or leave at All Authors.
Do let us know if you face any further problems. Leave a comment below and we will get back to you.
