Should you move from Blogger to WordPress at all?
Move when Blogger is limiting your growth; stay if it is not. Blogger is free, reliable and hosted by Google, which is exactly what many small blogs need. WordPress costs money every year and needs updates, so the switch only pays off if you will use what it offers.
Good reasons to migrate: you want full control over design and speed; you need plugins for SEO, email lists, recipe cards, affiliate tables or memberships; you want to add a shop, courses or a business site around the blog; you are worried about depending entirely on one free platform; or you want better control of structured data and internal linking for search.
Weak reasons: you heard WordPress “ranks better” by itself (it does not; content and site quality do), or you want a new look that a better Blogger theme could give you. If your blog earns nothing and you post twice a year, the cost and upkeep of WordPress may not be worth it.
Move now
The blog earns from AdSense or affiliates, traffic is growing, and you are hitting Blogger's limits on design, plugins or monetisation.
Wait or stay
Traffic is small, you have no budget for hosting and upkeep, or you are mid-way through a busy season when any dip would hurt.
Custom domain or blogspot.com address: why it changes the whole migration
If your Blogger blog already runs on your own domain, such as yourblog.com, the migration is clean: you keep the domain, point it to WordPress hosting, and redirect old Blogger URL patterns to new WordPress ones on your own server. Google sees the same domain with some URLs permanently moved.
If your blog lives at yourblog.blogspot.com, it is harder. Blogger does not give you server access, so you cannot place a normal server-side 301 redirect from the blogspot address to a new domain. Google's Change of Address tool in Search Console also requires a 301 redirect from the old home page, according to Google's own help page, so it is generally not an option for a blogspot move.
The usual workaround is a redirect placed in the Blogger theme that sends visitors and crawlers from each old post to its new address, combined with canonical tags pointing to the new URLs. It works for readers and Google does follow it over time, but it is weaker and slower than a true 301. We explain this plainly before you commit, because it affects how long recovery takes.
A tip if you are still on blogspot and not ready to move: connect a custom domain to Blogger first. Later, the WordPress move becomes the clean version described above.
What transfers in a Blogger to WordPress migration, and what does not
Posts, pages and comments transfer; design, widgets and most settings do not. Google's Blogger help explains that the Back up content option under Settings, Manage blog downloads a file containing your posts, pages and comments.
Images are the big catch. Your posts point to images stored on Blogger's image servers. Many import methods keep those links as they are, so images appear on WordPress but still load from Google's servers. If you later delete the Blogger blog, or Google changes those URLs, images across your archive can break. A proper migration downloads every image into your WordPress media library and rewrites the links.
Other things that need rebuilding: the theme and layout, sidebar widgets such as popular posts and follower counts, menus, contact forms, custom JavaScript in your template, and any third-party comment system. Labels become categories or tags, and we agree the mapping with you first so archive URLs make sense.
- Moves: posts, drafts, static pages, labels, comments, publish dates
- Needs copying: every image stored on Blogger's servers
- Needs rebuilding: theme, widgets, menus, contact form, ad placements
- Needs reconnecting: Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, email subscriptions
Is the Blogger Importer plugin enough for a Blogger to WordPress migration?
For a small blog it can be a starting point, but check its limits first. Its WordPress.org listing says it imports categories, posts, comments and images, but not pages, widgets or templates, and that Blogger permalinks are not preserved.
The same listing warns that the plugin has not been tested with the latest three major WordPress releases and may no longer be maintained, and some reviewers report problems with large blogs and stripped iframes such as embedded videos. That does not mean it never works; it means you should test on a staging site and check posts one by one before trusting it.
For larger or income-earning blogs we use the export file with a controlled import process, then verify counts: the number of posts, pages and comments on Blogger versus WordPress, image references still pointing at Blogger's servers, and embedded videos. Any gap is fixed before the domain moves, not after readers find it.
Blogger URL patterns and the 301 redirects you need
Blogger uses fixed URL patterns that WordPress does not use by default, so every pattern needs a rule. Miss one and Google finds a trail of 404 pages where your ranking posts used to be.
Blogger posts sit at a year/month path ending in .html, such as /2023/05/best-monsoon-treks.html. Static pages sit under /p/, like /p/about.html. Label archives sit under /search/label/. Mobile views add ?m=1 to the URL. Feeds live under /feeds/. Each needs a destination on WordPress.
The cleanest approach is to set WordPress permalinks to mirror the Blogger pattern as closely as possible, so many URLs stay almost identical, then add redirect rules for the rest: .html endings, /p/ pages, label archives to category pages, mobile parameters stripped, and feeds pointed to WordPress feeds. We then test every old URL from your sitemap and Search Console against the new site before switching the domain.
Google's Change of Address help page advises keeping redirects for at least 180 days, and longer if Google Search still sends traffic to the old URLs. In practice we tell clients to keep them permanently; they cost nothing to leave in place.
How to migrate from Blogger to WordPress, step by step
The order matters more than the tools. Build and test everything on WordPress first, and switch the domain last, so readers never see a half-moved blog.
- Crawl the Blogger blog and export a list of every live URL
- Download the Blogger backup file from Settings, Manage blog
- Set up hosting and WordPress on a temporary address
- Set permalinks close to the Blogger pattern
- Import posts, pages, labels and comments, then verify counts
- Copy every image into the media library and rewrite links
- Set up theme, menus, widgets, contact form and ad slots
- Add redirect rules and test every old URL against staging
- Point the domain or add the Blogger theme redirect
- Verify Search Console, submit the sitemap, add the site in AdSense
Most of this is careful checking, not clever code. The import takes minutes; verifying hundreds of posts, images and redirects is where the real time goes.
Keeping AdSense income during a Blogger to WordPress migration
Plan for a short gap in ads on the new site and keep it as small as possible. AdSense treats a new domain as a new site: you add it under Sites, verify ownership with the AdSense code, an ads.txt file or a meta tag, and request a review. Google's AdSense help says the review usually takes a few days but can take two to four weeks.
If you keep the same custom domain, the site is already known to AdSense, and the main tasks are placing your ad code in the new theme and putting ads.txt at the root of the WordPress site. If you move from blogspot to a new domain, you need the new site approved, so we add it and request review early, while the blog is still running on Blogger.
We also rebuild ad placements carefully. Blogger themes often place ads in fixed widget slots; on WordPress, auto ads or manual placements should be tested so they do not push content around on phones, which would hurt layout stability and reader experience. Earnings depend on traffic and advertisers, so nobody can promise the same income on day one, but a clean redirect plan protects the traffic that earns it.
Search Console steps after moving a blog from Blogger to WordPress
Verify the new site in Google Search Console before the switch, then watch it closely for the first eight weeks. Search Console is where you will see redirect problems long before traffic reports make them obvious.
On launch day we submit the new WordPress XML sitemap, inspect a sample of old Blogger URLs to confirm they redirect correctly, and inspect the matching new URLs to confirm they are indexable. If the domain changed and a true 301 is possible, we use the Change of Address tool, which Google says applies to domain-level properties and needs both properties verified by the same owner.
Over the following weeks we check the Pages report for new 404 errors, redirect errors or pages marked as duplicates, and the Performance report for any posts losing clicks. Most well-planned moves settle within weeks; blogspot moves using a theme redirect can take longer. If you want ongoing search work after the move, monthly SEO starts at ₹10,000/mo.
How much does Blogger to WordPress migration cost in India?
With BtechWaleTech, a Blogger to WordPress migration for a blog with up to 100 posts and pages starts at ₹10,000 (US$150); archives with 299 or more posts start at ₹20,000. You receive an itemised quote in about two working days after sharing your blog address.
What moves the price: the number of posts and images, how many different URL patterns and labels exist, whether old posts contain messy formatting or broken embeds from years of theme changes, whether you want a custom design or a ready theme, and whether it is a bilingual blog. Quotes across the market vary widely, often because some include image transfer and full redirect testing and others do not. Always ask what happens to images and redirects.
Running costs after the move are your hosting and domain renewals, paid directly to the providers, plus any premium theme or plugins you choose. We keep plugins lean. After the two free months, maintenance starts at ₹8,000/mo a month if you want us to handle updates, backups and fixes.
Choosing hosting and a theme for a migrated Blogger blog
Pick hosting for your traffic and audience location, and a theme for speed, not for the demo. A blog moving off Google's infrastructure should not become slower than it was on Blogger, or readers and search visibility will suffer.
For most Indian blogs, good shared or managed WordPress hosting with a server or CDN edge close to India, page caching, a recent PHP version and daily backups is enough. Very busy blogs may need a small cloud server, which another of us on our team can set up on AWS or another provider in your name.
For the theme, we prefer lightweight block themes or a small custom theme over heavy multipurpose themes with page builders. Recipe, travel, finance and exam-preparation blogs each benefit from specific layouts, such as recipe cards, table of contents, author boxes and related posts, and we add those with lean plugins or theme code. For a fully bespoke look, see custom WordPress theme development.
Moving Hindi and regional-language blogs from Blogger
Hindi and regional-language blogs migrate the same way, with a few extra checks. Blogger URLs for Hindi posts are sometimes transliterated, sometimes numeric, and occasionally contain encoded Devanagari characters, and each pattern must redirect correctly.
We check that fonts render properly in the new theme, that the page language is set correctly so Google shows the right version, and that the search box handles Hindi queries. For blogs that publish in both Hindi and English, we can set up a structure where each language has its own section or uses proper language tags, with you supplying or approving the translated copy.
Many Indian bloggers run exam, job, recipe, devotional or technology blogs with large archives. For those, a careful label-to-category plan matters, because label archives often attract search traffic of their own and should land on equally useful category pages after the move.
Common Blogger to WordPress migration mistakes to avoid
Nearly every traffic loss after a Blogger move traces back to a few avoidable mistakes. Check these before you let anyone switch your domain.
- Switching the domain before testing redirects for every old URL
- Leaving images on Blogger's servers and then deleting the Blogger blog
- Forgetting /p/ pages, label archives or mobile ?m=1 URLs
- Changing post slugs or dates so the old URLs no longer match
- Launching with a heavy theme that is slower than the old Blogger site
- Forgetting ads.txt, so AdSense ads do not show on the new site
- Domain or hosting bought in the developer's name
- Deleting the Blogger blog before redirects and images are confirmed
If you have already moved and traffic dropped, most of these can still be fixed. Our traffic drop after migration guide explains how we rebuild the redirect map from old sitemaps and archives.
How long does a Blogger to WordPress migration take?
A blog with up to 100 posts usually takes one to two weeks from approval to switch; a large archive takes two to three weeks. Most of the time is spent checking images and redirects, not importing.
Days 1–2: audit
Crawl the Blogger site, list every URL pattern and label, download the backup, agree the category plan and theme.
Days 3–6: build on staging
WordPress installed on a temporary address, content imported, images copied, theme and widgets set up, contact form and ad slots added.
Days 7–9: redirect testing
Rules written for posts, pages, labels, mobile and feeds; every old URL tested; AdSense site added and review requested if needed.
Switch day and after
Domain pointed or Blogger theme redirect added, sitemap submitted, Search Console monitored daily at first, then weekly.
Who owns the blog after the migration?
You do, completely. The domain, hosting account, WordPress administrator login, Google Search Console, Analytics and AdSense accounts all stay in your name. We work as users you add, and you can remove us at any time.
This matters for bloggers more than most, because the blog is often the income. A domain bought in a helper's name can leave your whole blog hostage at renewal time. We avoid that by creating accounts with you on a call, or by asking you to create them and add us.
At handover you receive the WordPress admin details, a list of plugins and why each is there, the redirect rules, your backup location, and simple notes on publishing, updating and checking Search Console. You also keep your original Blogger backup file, which we recommend storing safely.
Worked example: a hypothetical Hindi recipe blog on blogspot
This is an illustration, not a real client. Imagine a Hindi and English recipe blog on a blogspot.com address with around 250 posts, many photos per post, and AdSense income that matters to the family budget. The owner wants a proper recipe card, faster pages and her own domain.
Because the blog is on blogspot, we would first explain the redirect limitation and suggest registering a custom domain in her name. The plan: WordPress set up on the new domain; posts, labels and comments imported; every image copied into the media library; permalinks set to the year/month pattern with .html handled by redirects; labels such as “Sabzi” and “Mithai” mapped to categories; a recipe card added with structured data; AdSense site added with ads.txt and review requested before the switch.
On switch day a redirect is added to the Blogger theme so each old post sends readers and crawlers to its new address, alongside canonical tags. At about 250 posts the blog is larger than the 100-post plan from ₹10,000 but smaller than the 299+ band from ₹20,000, so the itemised quote would sit between the two, with separate lines for image volume and bilingual checks. Search Console is watched for the following weeks.
Blogger to WordPress migration for bloggers across India
We work remotely with bloggers and small publishers in every state, over WhatsApp and video calls, in Hindi or English, with payment by UPI or bank transfer. Recipe, travel, exam and job-update, technology and devotional blogs are among the common types.
City pages describe local business context, for example Jodhpur, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Siliguri, Kozhikode, Mangaluru and Tirupati. Bloggers outside India are billed in USD through Wise, bank wire or PayPal.