Believe it or not, our switch from Blogger to WordPress took six months. I am beyond words happy that this whole Blogger to WordPress migration is FINALLY complete, and thought now would be a good time to share the million mistakes I made along the way…so that you don’t have to make them too if you decide to transfer!
First of all, if you’re debating Blogger vs WordPress, let it be known that I absolutely love WordPress. Six months is by NO means how long a Blogger to WordPress migration should take, and unfortunately because of it I lost followers and pageviews along the way. However, I already like Wordpress much better than Blogger and wish I would have made the switch sooner.
With that being said, here’s my advice for a Blogger to WordPress migration!
1. Choose a web host with great customer service.
Like many bloggers, I highly recommend WPEngine. SO many great things to say about them! I personally use BlueHost because I was sucked into a contract, but unfortunately my site goes down a lot due to their servers :( But they were lifesavers when I was playing around on the backend of my site and made mistakes that broke the entire site (see #3), and they completely blog completely restored within minutes. Really great customer service.
2. Choose a responsive WordPress theme.
I used the Genesis Framework from the beginning (HIGHLY recommended for SEO purposes), but it wasn’t until my Blogger to WordPress migration was almost complete that I realized that my theme wasn’t responsive. Now let’s be real – who wants to zoom in really close on their phone just to read small text on a blog?! Not me. With my Google Analytics account showing that over 40% of our traffic comes from mobile, I realized that responsiveness was essential, and so I had to have it completely recoded (see #4). Now, our site is on the responsive eleven40 Theme and I love it!
3. Don’t delete photos or plugins you think are unnecessary.
I’ll be honest; one thing I am not happy with about our site is that it takes forever to load. So, being the expert web coder that I am (NOT) I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to speed up the blog on my own. First I deleted plugins I thought weren’t being used and, well, that broke my site. Then I went into the file manager and deleted photos that appeared to be duplicates…and that removed every photo from my blog! NOT cool. Thanks to Bluehost, the site was saved — but I definitely recommend hiring someone to speed up your blog for you instead of trying to do it on your own! I hired Oizuled and have been so impressed with his work! For a really decent price, he helped me with site speed, security, SEO, and more.
4. Hire a designer / developer you really trust.
Because I had such a good experience with the person who designed my old blog, I decided to pay her up front for the Hudson and Emily Blogger to WordPress migration. I was told it would be a six week turnaround, but FIVE MONTHS later, the design was not complete and the site had not been transferred. Needless to say, it was a really frustrating situation and I ended up having to pay someone else to finish the project. I hired Lisette of High Note Designs and she is AMAZING! She went above and beyond to do a great job with a quick turnaround. So, moral of the story: hire someone who really knows their stuff, and who you can trust to get the job done right!
5. Don’t try to hide your real name.
I used to be so concerned about using our last name on the blog…not sure why…we’re sharing half our lives with the world anyway, it’s not like people couldn’t find it if they wanted to! But, I learned that one of the best things you can do for SEO is to claim “Google Authorship” on your blog by attaching your Google+ profile to your website. So hi ya’ll, the name’s Emily Crider, nice to meet you :)
Have you gone through a Blogger to WordPress migration?! If so, feel free to comment with extra tips for readers. And if you are considering Blogger vs WordPress or have any questions about the Blogger to WordPress migration, feel free to let me know and I am happy to help!!
