• Categories
    • Tutorials
    • Beginners Guide
    • WordPress News
    • WordPress Security
    • Best WordPress Plugins
    • WordPress Themes
    • Product Reviews
    • WP Tips & Tricks
  • Guides
    • Start a Blog
    • Make a Website
    • WordPress Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
    • A2 Hosting
    • HostGator
    • Bluehost
    • Cloudways
  • Managed Hosting
    • WPEngine
    • Rocket.net
    • WPX
    • Kinsta
  • Coupons
    • WPEngine
    • Flywheel
    • Cloudways
    • A2 Hosting
    • WPX Hosting
WordPress Tutorials

How to Move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Last Updated on: June 29, 2015 Joe Warnimont 4 Comments

How to Move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Are you interested in making the move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org?

WordPress.com is like a watered down version of WordPress.org. Yes, it’s weird that they couldn’t come up with some more differentiated names for the products, but WordPress.com is typically for people just starting off with their blogs.

It’s used by people who want to test the waters and see if blogging or building a website is right for them. If you make the jump to WordPress.org it means you are ready to take your site more seriously with options to customize your themes, add plugins and even perform maintenance and backups for increase performance and security.

We aren’t going to outline all the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org in this article, but if you really want to do your homework before completing this process, you can check out all the main differences on the WordPress website.

In short, WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress.com, where you have full customization of your site, whereas WordPress.org is hosted through WordPress, meaning you have to abide by their restrictions.

Let’s take a look at how you can quickly move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Am I in the Right Position to Start the Migration?

What is needed to get started?

  • A domain name from a quality web hosting company (if you already have a domain name we will talk about moving that over below)
  • A hosting account from the web hosting company you chose above
  • Direct access to your WordPress.com account, so have the login information ready so we can transfer the files over
  • Like we talked about before, you have to start by understanding if you actually have a WordPress.com website.

Step 1: Signing Into WordPress.com and Exporting the Data

To start, you want to export all the data from your old WordPress.com page, moving it onto your computer so we can use it later to import into the new WordPress.org site. Login to your old WordPress.com website and find the Tools tab on the left hand side of the dashboard.

Scroll over this button to find the Export option. Click on this.

Tools Export

This brings you to a brand new page where it will ask you how you want to export the data. Remember that this exportation process grabs all your posts, comments and images for transfer.

There are two options: Export and Guided Transfer. Since we are making the transfer manually with this tutorial you should click on the Export link to move forward.

Export Options

The next page asks you what you want to export. Typically, you would want to choose the All Content one, but if you really don’t want to bring along something like feedback, you can make a different selection. I would recommend just transferring over everything so you don’t miss anything.

Click the Download Export File button to move on.

Choose What to Export

This creates a downloaded file on your computer, which you can move to any file you want so you can access it later.

Step 2: Creating a New WordPress.org Website

Now that you have all the data you need from your old WordPress.com site you can get started creating your new WordPress.org site.

In short, you have to walk through putting the WordPress platform on the hosting account we talked about above. We have a nice guide that walks you through the entire process of installing WordPress in just a few minutes. Walk through that process, then come back to proceed with the migration.

Step 3: Moving Your Exported Data Into the New Site

Now that you have a brand new self-hosted WordPress.org website you can start importing data into it. Luckily, we exported the data from your previous site that can be easily moved onto the new self-hosted site.

Login to the dashboard of your new WordPress.org website. Once in the dashboard go to the Tools tab on the left and click on it. This reveals a few options, one of them being Import. Click on the Import option so that we can place your old data on this site.

Tools Import

Quite a few options show up, but you only have to worry about WordPress. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on the WordPress link.

WordPress Import

This brings you to the WordPress Importer page where you will have to install a plugin so that you can import all your data. Click on the Install Now button to install, then click on the Activate Plugin and Run Importer link that shows up next.

Install Importer

The next page allows you to click on the Choose File button. Find the export file that you saved on your computer from before, and upload the file onto this WordPress Importer plugin. Once the file is completely uploaded you can click on the Upload File and Import button to proceed.

Import and Find File

You will then need to decide if you want to assign the content to a new author or select an existing user on your WordPress.org website. It doesn’t really matter which one you choose, as long as you assign the content to a username you actually want to use in the future and that person has admin privileges.

Assign Authors

You’ll also want to check the box where it says Download and Import File Attachments. If you leave this blank then you won’t be able to see any of the images you exported from the previous site. Click on the Submit button once this is all ready to go.

There’s also the chance that you want to import all the links and the blogroll from your old WordPress.com website. If this is the case you can go to Tools > Import once again. Click on the Blogroll link option and install the separate plugin to walk through the process.

After that, the import process is pretty much the same where you locate the file on your computer and upload it to the new site.

Blogroll Importer

Step 4: Guiding Old Users to Your New Site

To me, there is no reason not to send your old users to the new site, unless of course the old site was just filled with spam users or you had SEO problems where Google penalized you for sketchy SEO practices.

If you have built up a nice following and you don’t want to lose any of that SEO prowess, you should simply do nothing during this step. Doing nothing means that your old users can be redirected to the new site and the search engines can still index your site.

You can also send out some emails to your more loyal followers to give them the new site URL if it’s a new one.

However, if you really want to make it so that the old users aren’t redirected to the new site then you can go to your old WordPress.com website, login to the dashboard and click on the Settings tab on the left.

Navigate to the Reading option and locate the Site Visibility area. Select the I Would Like My Site to Be Private… option.

Settings Reading

Once again, I wouldn’t recommend this step unless you really think that the old users and SEO practices were not to the best interest for a new site.

Step 5: Truly Maintaining Your SEO and User Base

Unfortunately, if you skipped that previous step it doesn’t complete the entire process of redirecting your users and maintaining the SEO from one site to another.

Since WordPress.com doesn’t give you access to files like .htaccess, your options are limited for truly maintaining the SEO and sending over your visitors. Why? Because the best way to seamlessly send the users over and keep the SEO is to have a 301 header, which requires access to the .htaccess file.

The only way to redirect your old users is to use an upgrade from WordPress, called Site Redirect. Learn how to activate that upgrade here. If you didn’t have a following from the previous site then there really isn’t any reason to use this, but if you had a following then you might want to keep this upgrade around for at least a year so your users can figure out that you have a new site.

Like stated before, sending your users an email is typically an easier way to go about this.

Step 6: Update Your URLs

The first time I transferred a WordPress.com site to WordPress.org I nearly pulled my hair out because I completed the entire process, but the tutorial I used didn’t tell me how to change the URLs from the website. After the migration you will realize that half of your links are broken because the URLs need to be changed.

There are some manual ways to complete this process, but you might as well just use a plugin. Download the Velvet Blues Update URLs plugin and activate it on your site. Remember you are activating this plugin on your new WordPress.org site.

Go to the Tools tab on the left and click on the Update URLs option.

Update URLs

Simply type in the old URL and the new URL and check off the first option called URLs in page context. Click on the Update URLs Now button to move on. All of your URLs should now be updated, unless of course some of your URLs are hardcoded. In that case you have to walk through and change those ones manually.

Velvet Blues

Do You Have Any Questions or Concerns? Check Out Some FAQs Below.

What if I don’t want to setup or transfer my own WordPress blog?

Is there a way that someone else could transfer your site from WordPress .com to WordPress.org? We offer a free WordPress blog setup service to anyone who is interested. Please feel free to contact us here if you have any questions.

Does it matter where I previously bought my domain?

No, it doesn’t matter. You should be able to transfer over any domain to the new website. For example, if you registered the domain through WordPress.com, you can quickly transfer it over to your new site. The same goes for if you got the domain from somewhere like GoDaddy.

All you have to do is move that domain to the new web host.

Will any of my posts, pages or data be lost during the transfer?

As long as you exported all your posts, pages and data from the previous WordPress.com site it should all still be there.

Will I lose the search engine rankings I previously built up?

If you use the Site Redirect upgrade we previously talked about you won’t lose any of your search engine rankings. Switching your URLs and redirecting your previous site helps to keep the SEO that you built up from before. It might not be perfect, but it certainly helps.

Will my site experience downtime?

If you follow all the steps above you will not experience any downtime. Why? Because we are leaving the old site active for the entire process. It isn’t until the new site is up and running where we create a redirect from the old site.

What happens to my images when I make the move?

All the images come along as long as you check off the Download and Import File Attachments in Step 3.

Do I have to pay for this process?

Nope. This process is completely free, so it’s worth a shot. The only thing you might have to pay for is the Site Redirect Upgrade if you go with this route. Even if you let us migrate your site you don’t have to pay a dime.

Do my WordPress subscribers come with me to the new site?

As stated before, the WordPress subscribers don’t magically move over to the new site, but you can redirect the old site and even send the users an email if you want them to view the new site instead.

That’s it! Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about how to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. If this process seems too intimidating have us migrate or create your WordPress site for free.

+ Share
Disclosure

Joe Warnimont

Joe is a writer, tech nut, marketing crash test dummy and adventure seeker. He helps people write, market their writing and embrace their lives through creativity. You can find him riding his bike around Chicago or sharing on his blog, Write With Warnimont.

Related Posts

Back to all articles
  • How to Increase the Memory Limit in WordPress

    How to Increase the Memory Limit in WordPress

  • What is WordPress? A Beginner's Guide!

    What is WordPress? What Can it do & Is it Right for You? A Beginner’s Guide

  • How to Use Git to Push Your Local Site Live

    How to Use Git to Push Your Local Site Live

Coupons

View more deals
  • Recipe Card Blocks Coupon
    15% OFF

    Recipe Card Blocks Coupon

    Running a cooking or food website can be fun (and tasty) – but
    Get This Deal
  • WP 2FA Coupon
    20% OFF

    WP 2FA Coupon

    Security should be at the forefront of all site owner’s min
    Get This Deal
  • Themskingdom Coupon
    20% OFF

    ThemesKingdom Coupon

    First impressions count. As such, you’ll want a WordPress t
    Get This Deal
4 Comments Leave a Reply
  1. Glenn Shepherd says

    July 24, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    Hi Joe,

    Thanks for sharing this useful info. I didn’t actually know that it is possible to export a blog from wordpress.com and then import it into a self-hosted WordPress installation. That’s very useful for people who have started out with the .com solution and don’t want to lose what they’ve worked on.

    I’ve never had this problem and I don’t anticipate ever having to do it for myself, however I know that it is a common issue and now I will be able to help people to do this without starting the need to start a whole new self-hosted blog from scratch.

    Thanks again! 🙂

    »Glenn«

    Reply
  2. Chioma Anozie says

    July 30, 2015 at 9:54 am

    Hi Joe,

    This is a great article. I am currently running an experiment on wordpress.com and if it goes well, I will love to transfer the site to wordpress.org. So this tutorial will definitely come in handy.

    I have used both wordpress.com and wordpress.org and I must say that wordpress.org offers more power and control over one’s site. wordpress.com is just for beginning bloggers who want to be sure that blogging is right for them (as you said). For established bloggers it can be frustrating atimes to work within wordpress.com’s restrictions. For instance with wordpress.com you can not track visitors from social sites with a tracking script.

    Thanks for putting this tutorial together. Have a wonderful day.

    Reply
    • Joe says

      July 30, 2015 at 3:55 pm

      Thanks Chioma. You’re right on the money with your description of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. Let me know how your experiment goes and if you need any additional assistance when you decide to make the migration. Have a good one!

      Reply
  3. Andre says

    August 19, 2015 at 1:29 am

    I’ve always been curious why .com is so limiting until I found out how they make their money from the growing list of markup services (and costly ones). Even themes are pricey reaching over $100. I almost went to .com to design themes but decided to keep to .org instead.

    Going with .org is a lot more flexible, and in many cases, a huge cost savings.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Full Disclosure This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you click on one of the links and purchase an item, we may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). All opinions are our own and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.

THE BEST OF WPKUBE

Some of the best content we have published so far.

BEGINNER GUIDES & REVIEWS

18 Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Providers in 2023 (From $1.99)
210 Best WordPress Hosting Options for 2023 (Pros & Cons)
38 Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers for 2023 Compared
45 Best WooCommerce Hosting Providers Compared in 2023 (All Budgets)
5Top 9 Landing Page Plugins for WordPress (2023)
69 Best List Building Plugins for WordPress In 2023
7How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error on Your WordPress Website
8Thrive Themes Review: A Look At The Full Membership
9Beaver Builder Review: Is it The Best Page Builder Plugin for WordPress (2023)?
10OptimizePress Review: Create Landing Pages with Ease
11How to Make a Website: Complete Beginner’s Guide
12Top 22 Best Free Stock Photo Resources For Your Site
1317 of the Best Google Fonts for 2023 (And How to Use Them in WordPress)
14How to Start a Blog in 2022 (Step by Step Guide)
15How To Fix ‘503 Service Unavailable’ WordPress Error
1611 Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress in 2023
17How to Add a Custom Logo to Your WordPress Site
18How to Fix Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress

WPEngine: 50% OFF Deal

Save 50% on one of the best managed hosting providers.

Get this Deal

Flywheel(our review)

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.
Featured In Forbes Huffpost Entrepreneur SEJ

About WPKube

WPKube is an online WordPress resource which focuses on WordPress tutorials, How-to’s, guides, plugins, news, and more. We aim to provide the most comprehensive beginner’s guides to anything about WordPress — from installing plugins, themes, automated installs and setups, to creating and setting up pages for your website.

We have over 500+ tutorials, guides, product reviews, tips, and tricks about WordPress. Founded by Devesh Sharma, the main goal of this site is to provide useful information on anything and everything WordPress.

Twitter Facebook

Useful Links

  • Behind the Scenes
  • Beginner Guides
  • WordPress Hosting
  • WooCommerce Themes
  • MeridianThemes
  • Exclusive WordPress Deals
View All Guides »

Reviews

  • WPEngine 33% OFF
  • Thrive Leads
  • Flywheel 33% OFF
  • Divi Theme 20% OFF
  • Thrive Architect
  • Elegant Themes
Reviews »

Deals

  • InMotion Hosting
  • LifterLMS Coupon
  • LiquidWeb Coupon
  • WPEngine Coupon
  • A2 Hosting
  • FloThemes
More Deals »
© Copyright 2023 WPKube ® All Rights Reserved.
  • Contact
  • Site Terms
  • Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy