Use 301 Redirect to Migrate from BlogSpot to WordPress

Are you a blogger? What platform do you use to write your blog posts? Is it WordPress or is it a BlogSpot? In case you are using the later one and wish to shift to WordPress then this blog is for you. Here, we will show you how you can switch to WordPress with the use of 301 redirect.

Process: Shifting from BlogSpot to WordPress

So, before you migrate from BlogSpot to WordPress; there are two main things that you need: Domain name and Hosting.

The best hosting provider for this Blue host hosting as it offers unlimited hosting along with a free domain name. It is officially recommended by WordPress team. This domain name can be any say .com, .info, .org, .net but it is advisable to go for .com or .org domain address.

Here are some few things that must be taken care of while migrating from BlogSpot to WordPress:

• Traffic: Avoid offering 404 errors to your visitors.
• 301 perma redirection: The migration should be 301 redirection or must have canonical tags or else you will lose the existing search engine rankings.
• Perma Links: BlogSpot Permalink as well as WordPress permalinks are not one and the same and hence it is necessary to fix those permalinks once everything is imported to WordPress.

Once the migration is done, don’t delete your BlogSpot blog. 301 permanent redirection is used to inform the search engine that the blog is moved to another website and hence all the traffic will automatically get redirected to the new domain address.

The main goal of this blog transfer from one platform to another is to migrate visitors from BlogSpot to WordPress, shifting BlogSpot posts to WordPress and Migrating BlogSpot comments to WordPress.

Steps for Migration:

1. Export the BlogSpot Blog: This is the method that we are using with very little manual works. However, it works very great. The first step to export BlogSpot blog is :
   • Log in to BlogSpot Dashboard
   • Settings > Others
   • Choose Export Blog. This will save blog in XML format.

   Here, you will get a pop up. Select the Download blog and then your blog is saved in .XML format. This means now you have a complete back up of your blog and you are ready to move it on WordPress.

   Now, see whether you have the WordPress installed or not, if it’s not then install it. Then edit the hosts file to point the domain to the Bluehost hosting I.P. Once the host files are edited then you would be able to access your WordPress blog on Bluehost.

   Here, only you can see the WordPress Blog and others will still be able to see the BlogSpot post. This way your blog hasn’t been offline even for a second.

   In WordPress Dashboard, you have to do following things:

   • Go to Plugins & disable them all
   • Go to Posts > Get Hello World Post >Delete that
   • Go to Pages > Get a sample page > Delete that.

   After doing this, now migrate all the content from BlogSpot to WordPress. Here, our target is not to lose the current traffic and rankings.

2. Use Blogger Importer Extended Plugin: This is great plugin which migrates all the posts, pages, images and also maintains the blog formatting. Once this is installed & activated then go to its settings.

   Now, choose OK and here you will have to access your BlogSpot Account. Now, choose allow & Click on next page; here it will list all the BlogSpot blogs that are available in your account. Finally, the content is moved from BlogSpot to WordPress.

   The first thing here is to link the content to the users. If the post has single author then you don’t need to do much. On the other hand if you have multiple writers then it is necessary to create an id for them which is much easier.

   Then, change the WordPress permalinks to match BlogSpot Permalinks.

If all of the above steps are followed properly then migration from BlogSpot to WordPress with 301 permanent redirections is successful. Further, these are few more steps that are needed to complete the migration process.

• Install & Activate Smart 404 plugin
• Remove the Cname record from your domain DNS
• Change the domain name server
• Disable the mobile template from your BlogSpot Dashboard.

Fixing the BlogSpot mobile redirect in WordPress:

It is an important thing which will cause an issue on many browsers and well known browsers like UC Web can show a redirect loop error. It is happening due to BlogSpot mobile redirect. In order to fix this, you need to edit the WordPress .htaccess file & then change the code with the following:

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^m=1$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1? [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# END WordPress


# Begin Redirection#
Redirect archives
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})_([0-9]{1,2})_([0-9]{1,2})_archive.html$
$1/$2/ [L,R=301]#
Redirect labels/categories
RewriteRule ^search/label/(.*)$ category/$1/ [L,R=301]
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^m=1$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1? [R=301,L]
#ATOM Feeds
RewriteRule atom.xml feed/atom/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule feeds/posts/default feed/atom/ [L,R=301]
#RSS FEEDS
RewriteRule feeds/posts/default?alt=rss feed/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule rss.xml feed/ [L,R=301]
#Comments Feed
RewriteRule /feeds/comments/default comments/feed/ [L,R=301]
RewriteRule /feeds/comments/default?alt=rss comments/feed/ [L,R=301]
# End Redirection

This completes the entire migration process and then is the turn to optimize SEO of your WordPress blog. Submit the sitemap to Google and configure the robots.txt file and so on.

Wind Up:

Hope the entire process is clear to you. In case, you have any doubts or questions then feel free to get in touch with Softqube Technologies; an IT firm offering expert WordPress design and development services at affordable costs.