WordPress.com is a good blogging platform, but it has drawbacks such as slow loading and limited website management. Fortunately, this can be overcome by moving WordPress hosting to self-hosting.
You’d love to hear that. However, how do you do that?
You are on the right page! In this article, we will explain how to easily migrate WordPress hosting. So, let’s see the complete guide!
Why Move WordPress.com to Self Hosting?
WordPress.com is indeed a free and easy-to-use platform. Unfortunately, its various limitations often make people switch to self-hosted WordPress.org.
The reason is, the features offered by WordPress.org are more sophisticated, equally easy to use, and can be managed at a fairly affordable cost.
So, if you’re sure you want to move WordPress.com to your own hosting, let’s just look at the article on how to migrate WordPress hosting below!
How to Move WordPress Hosting
Before following the tutorial on how to migrate WordPress, you need to prepare hosting and domain first.
If your new hosting and domain are ready, please follow the steps to move hosting from WordPress.com to self-hosting below:
1. Export Data from WordPress.com
The first step in how to move WordPress hosting is to export data from your WordPress.com website.
First of all, please login to the WordPress.com admin dashboard first. If so, click the Tools menu on the sidebar and select the Export submenu.
You will be redirected to the Export Content page. On this page, click the Export All button to export all of your content (pages, posts, feedback).
Wait a few moments until you get a notification message that the export process has been completed.
You can get the exported file immediately by clicking the Download link.
If you accidentally remove the notification, don’t worry because the export file download link has also been sent to your WordPress.com account email.
2. Extract the Export Result Files
Next, extract the .zip file that has been successfully downloaded. The file contains an XML Document which includes all posts, pages, images, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, navigation menus and other data on your WordPress.com website.
3. Install WordPress on your hosting
Well, the next step in how to migrate WordPress is to install WordPress on your hosting.
Installing WordPress on Niagahoster is very easy, you can do it directly through the Member Area or through the Softaculous App feature on cPanel.
If WordPress is already installed on the hosting, please adjust the appearance of your WordPress.
This is done so that even though all blog content on WordPress.com can be moved to its own hosting, the templates and widgets cannot be migrated.
Therefore, you need to make WordPress appearance settings first.
4. Import WordPress.com Data to Your Own Hosting
After the installation is successful, please enter the WordPress admin dashboard. You can immediately follow the WordPress hosting migration method by accessing the Tools menu. Then, select the Import submenu.
On this page, there are several system options for importing websites. Select WordPress, then click Install Now to install the WordPress importer.
Wait a few moments for WordPress to finish installing the importer for you.
When finished, you will see a success notification on the same page. Next, click Run importer to run the WordPress importer.
You will be redirected to the WordPress Import page to upload the XML Document file that was previously extracted on your computer.
To do this, click the Choose File button and select the exported file from WordPress.com. Then, click the Upload file and import button.
Next, you can choose the author website, it can be the author name on the previous website, or create a new author name.
In the tutorial on how to move WordPress hosting this time, we chose to use the old author. So, we left the column blank in the Assign Authors section.
In the Import Attachments section, please check the checkbox provided. This needs to be done so that your image file can be imported correctly. If so, click the Submit button.
So, until here you have successfully moved WordPress.com to your own hosting. Please check your website content, all content from the previous website should already be on the WordPress website with the new hosting.
5. Connect Domain with Hosting
If you already have a domain connected to hosting, this step can be skipped. But if your domain is not connected to hosting, you need to connect it first so it can be accessed.
So, what if you previously used a custom domain on WordPress.com?
You can transfer a domain from WordPress.com to your new hosting service. To do this, enter the Domains settings menu, then select the option to transfer the domain.
You also need to confirm this domain transfer process to your new hosting provider. This process can take approximately 5 days to complete perfectly.
Another way you can do to transfer a domain from WordPress.com is to update the nameservers. Previously, your domain would point to ns1.wordpress.com and ns2.wordpress.com.
To change it, please go to Domains settings and change the nameservers according to your new hosting nameservers. Usually this process takes at most 3 days.
6. Redirect WordPress.com Website to WordPress on Shared Hosting [Optional]
If on WordPress.com your previous domain name was namawebsite.wordpress.com, by switching to WordPress on shared hosting, you can use your own domain such as namawebsite.com.
However, if your website already has a lot of visitors and is stable, they might get confused if your website changes domains. As a result, maybe they will stop visiting your website.
Besides that, it’d be a shame if your WordPress.com website, which already has a good ranking in search engines, has its domain disabled, right?
Well, redirecting the WordPress.com website to WordPress on self-hosting is the solution.
With a redirect, all visits to your old website will be redirected to your new WordPress website. You will also be able to maintain rankings in search engines.
You can do a redirect on the WordPress.com admin dashboard by selecting the Settings > General menu. At the bottom of the Site address field, click the redirect link.
You will be directed to fill in the destination domain. This redirect service requires a fee of $ 13 USD / year or around IDR 193,700 / year.
If you agree, please enter your WordPress hosting domain name, then click Go.
7. Change WordPress.com Website to Private [Optional]
To make it easier for visitors to find your new website, this option can be an option if you don’t want to use the WordPress.com redirect service.
To do this, please go to the Settings > General menu on your WordPress.com admin dashboard. Find the Privacy section, then select Private to limit access rights to the blog. Do not forget, click Save Settings to save changes.
Ready to Migrate WordPress.com to Your Hosting?
That’s the way to move WordPress hosting that you can try. Very easy, right? There are only seven steps you need to do, namely:
1. Export data/content that you have on WordPress.com
2. Extract the exported .zip file from WordPress.com
3. Install WordPress on your hosting
4. Importing data from WordPress.com to self hosting
5. Connecting the domain with hosting
6. Redirect the website from WordPress.com to WordPress on shared hosting [optional]
7. Make your WordPress.com website private [optional]
What needs to be remembered, you must have hosting and a domain first before following this tutorial on how to move WordPress.com to self-hosting. Make sure you use a qualified hosting service and use a unique domain name so that your previous visitors can easily recognize it.
Apart from choosing the best hosting, make sure to also choose a hosting provider where you will also get free SSL, automatic daily backup services and also 24-hour support from customer support to help you.
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