Most people prefer to start blogging on free platforms. That makes sense, nobody wants to spend money while they’re still learning the basics, and starting free gives you room to test things out before committing to a decision about whether to stick with a free platform or move to something more premium.

How to Transfer Blogger to WordPress

This isn’t to say Blogger isn’t a solid platform, it’s just meant to help you understand why you might eventually want to move your blog over to WordPress as your needs grow.

WordPress.org offers more genuine capability than either WordPress.com or Blogger. Here’s what that actually looks like:

• Self-hosting your blog: This gives you complete control over your blog, meaning you can do essentially whatever you want with it without needing anyone else’s permission.
• Full customization: Since you own and control the entire setup, you can customize virtually every aspect of your blog’s appearance and functionality to match exactly what you want.
• Genuine ownership and security: If you don’t fully own your blog, it can technically be removed or restricted at any point, for any reason the platform decides, since you’re bound by that platform’s policies rather than your own. On WordPress.org, security and control are entirely in your hands instead.
• Stronger monetization capabilities: If monetizing your blog is a near-term goal, Blogger’s limitations become a real constraint. You can’t install plugins on Blogger, which rules out things like adding an online store, building a portfolio, or capturing emails through pop-ups to grow your email list. You can still monetize a Blogger blog through display ads, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing, but WordPress.org gives you significantly more flexibility and tools to make monetization genuinely effective.

How to Move Your Blog From Blogger to WordPress

Migrating your blog is really about moving your content over, once your WordPress site is set up, the main thing left is transferring your existing posts.

Step 1: Export Your Blogger Content

1. Go to your Blogger account settings and find the “Manage Blog” section.
2. Click “Backup Content.”
3. Download the file.

This gives you a backup file containing your blog’s content, which you’ll use to bring everything into WordPress.

Step 2: Import Your Content Into WordPress

Here’s an important update worth knowing: WordPress’s original built-in Blogger importer, the one many older guides (including earlier versions of this post) walk you through, no longer works reliably.

Blogger changed its export file format, and the classic importer hasn’t kept pace with that change. If you try the old method and it fails partway through or produces broken results, that’s why.

The good news is there are actively maintained, free plugins built specifically to handle Blogger’s current export format. Here’s the general process:

1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for a current Blogger import plugin (look for one actively updated recently, and check its reviews and compatibility with your WordPress version, since tools in this specific space have changed hands and rebuilt themselves more than once as Blogger’s export format has shifted).
3. Install and activate the plugin.
4. Follow its specific import process, most current tools either accept the backup file you downloaded from Blogger directly, or let you import using your Blogger blog’s public ID, and they’ll walk you through mapping authors and confirming what content (posts, pages, images) to bring over.
5. Many of these newer tools also handle images automatically, downloading them into your WordPress media library rather than leaving them linked back to Blogger’s servers, and some can even set up automatic redirects from your old Blogger URLs to their new WordPress equivalents, which is genuinely valuable for preserving your SEO rankings during the move.

Because this plugin landscape has shifted more than once as Blogger updated its systems, it’s worth checking WordPress.org’s plugin directory at the time you’re doing your migration and choosing whichever current, actively maintained option best fits your needs, rather than relying on the name of a specific tool that might change or stop being maintained later.

Step 3: Confirm Everything Imported Correctly

Once the import finishes, go through your WordPress site and check that your posts appear correctly, images loaded properly, and dates and authors are accurate.

It’s worth spot-checking a handful of older posts specifically, since formatting issues are more likely to show up in posts with more complex layouts or embedded media.

A Few Extra Tips for a Smooth Migration

• Set up redirects from your old Blogger URLs. Even if your chosen import tool doesn’t handle this automatically, setting up 301 redirects from your old Blogger post URLs to their new WordPress equivalents helps preserve your search rankings and prevents readers (and search engines) from hitting dead links.
• Back up your Blogger export file somewhere safe. Keep a copy even after a successful import, in case you need to reference it or attempt the import again if something goes wrong.
• Double-check your permalink structure. WordPress and Blogger handle URL structures differently by default. Reviewing your WordPress permalink settings before or right after import helps keep your URLs clean and consistent.
• Reconnect your analytics and Search Console. Once your content is live on WordPress, make sure Google Analytics and Search Console are properly connected to your new setup, since your existing tracking from Blogger won’t automatically carry over.

Conclusion

That covers how to transfer your blog from Blogger to WordPress, along with an important update: the classic built-in importer many older guides describe no longer works reliably, so you’ll want to use one of the current, actively maintained plugins built for Blogger’s updated export format instead.

Once your content is safely moved over, you’ll have significantly more room to grow, customize, and monetize your blog going forward. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to get in touch in the comments below, I’d be glad to hear from you.