Migrate Blogger to WordPress
Moving from Blogger to WordPress is mostly about URLs: export the content, import it cleanly, and make every old address lead to its new page.
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Switching a Blogger blog to WordPress can open up more customization and plugins, but a clean migration is critical if you don't want to lose search traffic. The main technical risk lies in keeping old URLs and their search signals working after the switch. To do this, back up Blogger content, import it into WordPress, and redirect every old permalink to its new equivalent. Menu names in Blogger, WordPress and Search Console can change over time.
Export From Blogger and Import Into WordPress
In Blogger, open Settings, scroll to Manage blog, click Back up content and then Download. Blogger Help says the backup contains the blog's posts, pages and comments; older backups came as an .xml file, newer ones through Google Takeout. The theme is saved separately, under Theme > Backup.
In your WordPress dashboard, go to Tools > Import. Under Blogger, click Install Now if the importer isn't installed yet, then Run Importer, choose the Blogger file and click Upload file and import, as the WordPress documentation describes. According to its plugin page, the Blogger Importer brings over categories, posts (published, scheduled and drafts), comments and images, and lets you map authors; it does not import pages, widgets or the theme, and it strips iframes from content. Recreate pages and embeds by hand and confirm that images now load from your own site.
Keep Old URLs Working
Blogger post addresses follow the pattern /year/month/post-title.html, while WordPress uses its own permalink settings, so URLs will change unless you plan for them. Make a list of every old URL and its new address. Google Search Central recommends server-side permanent (301) redirects and keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least one year.
How you redirect depends on where the blog lives:
- Blog on a custom domain. Point the domain's DNS to the WordPress host (replacing Blogger's CNAME and A records) and remove the domain in Blogger. The old paths now arrive at WordPress on the same domain, where a redirect plugin or the
.htaccessfile can send each one to its new permalink with a 301. - Blog on blogspot.com. Blogger does not give you server access, and its Custom redirects setting only works for paths within the same blog, so it cannot send visitors to another domain. Plugins such as Blogger to WordPress work by adding canonical and meta refresh code to the Blogger theme instead, which is weaker than a server-side 301.
Check Search Console After the Move
After launching, add and verify the WordPress site in Search Console if it's a new property, and submit its sitemap; WordPress generates one by default at /wp-sitemap.xml unless an SEO plugin replaces it. Remove the old sitemap once the new one is in place.
In the weeks that follow, use the URL Inspection tool on a sample of old URLs to confirm they redirect to the right page, and watch the Page indexing report for new errors, 404s and redirect problems. Traffic can fluctuate while Google processes the move; if old URLs are redirected one-to-one to matching content, it should settle as the new URLs are indexed.
