How to Move a Site From WordPress.com to WordPress.org

WordPress.com and WordPress.org are not similar ones but both are some of the most popular website building tools available online. WordPress.com is free and many beginners may start their first website mostly with WordPress.com. Once they come to realize that WordPress.com limits them at various levels and that’s when they decide to migrate the site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Compared to WordPress.com, WordPress.org offers various flexibility and customization features to boost your site performance. Check out the detailed comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. In the upcoming article, let’s see how to move a site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Migrate WordPress.com to WordPress.org

Here is a detailed step-by-step guide on how to move a site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Prerequisite

Before migrating or moving a WordPress.com site to WordPress.org, there are two most important things that you should have prior to the migration process and they are

• Domain Name
• Hosting Service – Bluehost is the most preferable and easy to work with when it comes to migration. You can also check out the list of some of the best hosting services for WordPress.

Step to proceed Migration

The migration involves several steps, so follow the steps one by one without making any errors.

[1] Once you have the Domain name and hosting service, set up your new WordPress.org site with the domain name.

Export Content from WordPress.com

[2] Go to your WordPress.com’s site dashboard and choose Tools from the left pane.

[3] Under the Tools section, select Export to view all the exporting options.

[4] Here click on the Export All button in the Export Content tab to export all text content from your site.

Note: If want you can also export all the data from your media library by clicking on the Download.

[5] Wait for some time to complete the exportation process and once done, you will be notified with “Your Export was successful!” and a download mail with be sent to linked mail ID or you can click on Download in the confirmation tab.

[6] Now you have successfully downloaded the content from your WordPress.com site as a ZIP (.zip) file.

Import Content to WordPress.org

[7] After exporting the file, go to the WordPress.org dashboard.

[8] From the left panel, go to Tool and click on Import.

[9] Scroll down to the WordPress section and click on Install Now (highlighted in blue).

[10] Once installed, Install Now will be changed to Run Importer, and click on it.

[11] Now click on Choose File and select the exported Zip file from WordPress.com on your PC.

[12] After locating and selecting the file, click on Upload file and import.

[13] Now you will be asked to assign an author to the importing content.

[14] You can create a new user or assign the post to the existing user which is up to your choice.

[15] Also, check the box under the Import Attachment section to Download and import the file attachment from the WordPress.com site (if not necessary leave it unchecked).

[16] After assigning the author and importing the attachment, click on Submit.

[17] This may take a few minutes to complete the process based on the file size you imported and once done, you will be displayed with all the imported files.

[18] You can also view the imported file updated on your WordPress site live.

How Redirecting visitors from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

After migrating a site, it is important to redirect the old site visitor to the newly migrated site to maintain site ranking. There is no access to .htaccess to make redirecting done on WordPress.com but a paid upgrade feature called Site Redirect (costs $13/year) will help you accomplish on WordPress. In order to redirect make sure to upgrade your WordPress.com site with Site Redirect functionality.

[1] Go to your WordPress.com dashboard and click on Manage from the left panel.

[2] Under the Manage section, click on Settings.

[3] Click on Redirect (highlighted in blue) below the site address.

[4] Then enter the domain to which the site needs to be redirected.

[5] Once done, click on Go and make the purchase ($13 per year).

[6] Once the purchase is done, you will be redirected automatically.

Note: You can continue or discontinue this subscription anytime you need. In our opinion, it is best if you have for more than 2 years so that your new site domain will be more recognized by your visitors.

Set WordPress.com to Private

If you are not interested in redirecting, then you can make the content available on your site to private. Follow the steps below to do that

[7] Go to Manage from the WordPress.com left panel and choose Settings.

[8] Under the Privacy section, click on the radio button next to Private.

[9] Now click on Save to make your private and accessible only for approved users.

Conclusion

This is how you can move your site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, safe and secure without any loss of data. Since WordPress.com has various limitations on plugins, themes, and the revenue it is best to migrate your site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org for more features and possibilities. If you are facing any issues or problems in moving or migrating the site, let us know in the comments section below.