Why Should You Migrate Your Website to WordPress?
Small businesses and individuals are constantly creating websites to reap the benefits of online presence, including growing their brand and staying connected with clients. However, many beginners opt for a blogging platform other than WordPress, which, while useful for quick startup, may eventually impose limitations as websites expand. These limitations can include inability to install necessary plugins, limited options for customizing site appearance, and cost issues as requirements grow.
Self-hosted WordPress is believed to outperform all other blogging and website platforms due to its power, affordability, ease of use, and flexibility. Here are the reasons why WordPress should be your top choice.
How to Migrate Your Blog to WordPress Yourself
Migrating your blog to WordPress is not as simple as transferring information from one platform to another. Proper execution is crucial to prevent loss of content. Choosing a reliable, fast WordPress hosting company is also vital, although most hosting services can automatically install WordPress for you free of charge.
It is also important to maintain SEO optimization so that your posts do not rank lower on Google, as well as to set up an SEO-friendly URL structure for future posts. Creating redirects to avoid broken links is also necessary to prevent visitors or search engines from losing track of your posts due to outdated URLs.
Additionally, other steps may be necessary to complete the migration and improve your blog. To help you keep track, we have created step-by-step guides for migrating from various blogging platforms to WordPress.
These include:
- Migrating Self-Hosted WordPress to a New Server or Domain
- Migrating From Blogger to WordPress
- Migrating From Ghost to WordPress
- Migrating From GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress
- Migrating From Gumroad to WordPress
- Migrating From Joomla to WordPress
- Migrating From Medium to WordPress
- Migrating From Shopify to WordPress
- Migrating From Squarespace to WordPress
- Migrating From Tumblr to WordPress
- Migrating From Weebly to WordPress
- Migrating From Wix to WordPress
- Migrating From WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress
- Special Offer: Our Team of Experts Can Move Your Blog for Free.
- Migrating a Self-Hosted WordPress Website to a New Server or Domain
If you already have a self-hosted WordPress website and decide to migrate it to a new hosting service or domain, you will need to transfer your WordPress files and databases to the new provider to avoid data loss and website downtime. Our step-by-step tutorial provides a safe and effective approach to migrate WordPress to a new host or server without any interruption. However, if you’re changing your website’s URL, you’ll need to follow our detailed guide on how to move WordPress to a new domain.
- Migrating from Blogger to WordPress
Blogger is a free Google blogging service that is quick and easy to use. However, as your website grows, you may encounter limitations in basic blogging tools, customization options, and monetization features. In contrast, WordPress provides full website ownership and allows you to add necessary features to grow and monetize your blog. We have created a side-by-side comparison of WordPress and Blogger to help you make an informed decision. Fortunately, WordPress is capable of importing your Blogger posts natively. Nonetheless, it is important to follow our instructions carefully to avoid mismatched URLs for your new blog. If you have a free Blogger account, our guide on switching from Blogger to WordPress without losing Google rankings will be useful. However, if you have a custom domain Blogger blog, you can refer to our guide on how to migrate it to WordPress.
- Migrating From Ghost to WordPress
Ghost is a minimalist blogging platform that focuses solely on writing blog posts. It is available as a hosted platform or as software that you can install, but many users find installation difficult.
Although a simplified user interface can be a positive aspect, it also means that the options for customizing Ghost’s features and appearance are very limited. This can be frustrating.
On the other hand, WordPress allows you to customize your site by installing plugins and themes, and it is also much easier to install. 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 challenging because the default Ghost export file is not compatible with the format supported by WordPress. To address this issue, we created the Ghost to WordPress Importer tool.
Our guide on how to properly move from Ghost to WordPress shows you how to use this free tool to migrate your blog.
- Migrating From GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress
GoDaddy is one of the largest hosting and domain name companies in the world, and they offer a basic website builder tool called GoDaddy Website Builder to help their many users get started with building their website.
Many users opt for this tool because it’s a convenient way to get started. However, it lacks many of the key features of more powerful blogging platforms, as you can see in our detailed comparison between GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress.
As a result, users will quickly realize its many limitations and want to migrate their website to a more flexible and powerful platform like WordPress.
Unfortunately, there is no export tool to transfer your site from GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress, which makes the process time-consuming and error-prone.
Our guide on how to move a GoDaddy Website Builder site to WordPress provides clear explanations for each step of the process.
- Migrating From Gumroad to WordPress
Gumroad is a popular e-commerce platform that enables users to sell digital goods online, such as games, music, courses, and videos. However, due to its recent fee hike of 10% per transaction (excluding credit card processing or PayPal fees) and an additional 10% fee for sales made through the ‘Gumroad Discover’ feature or their ‘Global Affiliates’ program, many users are seeking to switch away from the platform.
In contrast, WordPress is a free platform that does not charge any fees for the items sold, including physical goods. WordPress also allows users to use any payment gateway they want and promotes their website freely, making it an ideal platform for selling digital goods. With the Easy Digital Downloads plugin, WordPress is the perfect platform for selling digital goods. For our readers, we have partnered with SiteGround to offer special EDD hosting.
Our guide on how to switch from Gumroad to WordPress explains how to do this in approximately 30 minutes.
- Migrating From Joomla to WordPress
Joomla is a good content management system that shares many similarities with WordPress, such as being open-source software written in the PHP programming language and using a MySQL database. Both platforms have similar requirements, meaning users do not need to change hosting companies.
However, Joomla is more complex to use than WordPress and is not as powerful or flexible because it has fewer extensions and designs available. See our comparison of Joomla vs WordPress for more details.
Thankfully, there is a plugin available that allows users to easily import their Joomla content into WordPress. Our guide on how to easily move your site from Joomla to WordPress takes users through every step needed to make this migration.
- Migrating From Medium to WordPress
Medium is a good blogging platform for new writers, allowing users to publish their posts with minimal setup. However, because users do not own the platform, other authors’ content is often displayed below their own stories.
Compared to WordPress, the platform is limited. By switching from Medium to WordPress, users can own their own blog and use plugins to add any necessary features. Our comprehensive step-by-step guide will help users properly move all their content from Medium to WordPress.
Users can retain the look of their old blog by installing a Medium-style theme or choose a new blog design using one of the best and most popular WordPress themes.
- Migrating from Shopify to WordPress
Shopify is a popular all-in-one eCommerce platform that simplifies the process of creating an online store, managing payments, and tracking inventory from a single platform. However, its convenience comes at a higher cost and with less control over your website.
In contrast, by installing the WooCommerce plugin, WordPress can be turned into a feature-rich online store with complete customization. For more information on the differences between the two platforms, see our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.
Unfortunately, migrating away from Shopify can be challenging as it does not provide an easy way to export data to a WordPress-supported format. However, we have developed an importer tool that facilitates free migration from Shopify to WooCommerce.
Our guide provides a step-by-step explanation of the entire migration process, including how to properly move from Shopify to WooCommerce.
- Migrating from Squarespace to WordPress
Squarespace is a website-building platform targeting small businesses, which allows easy creation of beautiful websites using drag-and-drop tools. However, compared to WordPress, Squarespace is more expensive and offers less flexibility in terms of design and functionality. Moreover, its plugin ecosystem is not as comprehensive as that of WordPress.
Unfortunately, migrating from Squarespace can be difficult due to limited export functionality. Depending on the content you have on your site, you may have to manually copy and paste some of the content from your Squarespace website.
Our comprehensive guide explains how to successfully migrate your site from Squarespace to WordPress, listing the content that can be automatically exported and the content that must be manually transferred.
- Migrating from Tumblr to WordPress
Tumblr is a microblogging platform with social networking features that make it easy to follow other blogs, reblog content, and share videos, GIFs, images, and audio formats. As a microblogging tool, it provides a straightforward way to blog quickly.
However, unlike WordPress, Tumblr’s features are limited and cannot be expanded. For more information on WordPress and its capabilities, see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
If you’re considering migrating from Tumblr to WordPress, the good news is that WordPress can natively import your Tumblr posts. Nonetheless, website migration is a complex process, and our comprehensive guide provides all the necessary steps for properly moving your blog from Tumblr to WordPress.
- Migrating from Weebly to WordPress
Weebly is a popular website builder platform owned by Square, providing easy-to-use tools for creating business websites, eCommerce stores, and free blog templates. However, the free plan has limited features and bandwidth, and upgrading to a paid subscription is expensive compared to other blogging websites. Additionally, Weebly’s blogging and SEO features are not as powerful as other blogging platforms. In contrast, WordPress can be hosted on any server and has a vast range of features such as online stores, contact forms, galleries, portfolios, SEO, and more. If you are considering migrating from Weebly to WordPress, our step-by-step guide provides directions to ensure a smooth transition.
- Migrating from Wix to WordPress
Wix is a popular hosted platform that enables users to create simple websites quickly using a drag-and-drop website builder. The Wix Blog app allows users to add a blog to their website. However, compared to WordPress, Wix offers limited options, and adding extra features can be quite expensive. For most websites, WordPress is a better choice as it has a broader range of themes and layouts, and a vast selection of plugins that add new features to websites. Unfortunately, Wix makes it difficult to move content away, but we recommend importing blog posts via RSS as the easiest method to move from Wix to WordPress. Our step-by-step guide provides directions for a successful migration, which typically takes around an hour on an average Wix blog.
- Migrating from WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress
WordPress.com is a blog hosting service offered by Automattic, a company co-founded by Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress.org. Basic blog hosting is free, and users can purchase additional options such as a custom domain name, additional storage, and premium services. While this appeals to new users as no setup is required, compared to a self-hosted WordPress website, there are limited options to extend your blog. For instance, custom themes and plugins can’t be used to customize your blog.
For more information on the comparison between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, please refer to our comparison chart.
If you’re ready to migrate from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress blog, please follow our guide on how to properly transfer your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, making sure to follow our steps carefully to avoid data loss, visitors, or SEO.
After the migration, you may discover that 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
We are offering a special service that includes migrating your blog from platforms such as Blogger, Medium, Weebly, or WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress website, for free. One of our expert team members will handle the entire migration process for you, at no cost, enabling you to switch to WordPress without any risks.
There are two conditions to qualify for this offer:
First, you need to sign up for your new web hosting service using our link to ensure you get the best hosting price. Second, your blog must not have more than 1,000 posts. If your blog exceeds this limit, we can still provide a migration service, but it will be a paid service.