Recently I just wanted to shift my blogging platform from blogger to WordPress. It didn't take much time I was with the migration process for 5 to 6 hours adjusting the template, ad codes, several plugins etc. Even redirecting all the pages of blogger to the newly shifted platform. I am a newbie in migrating just wanted to see if I could do it myself. And to my surprise I was able to manage it quite easily. But I felt some issues had gone worse than before in this migration.
Problems with Blogger to WordPress Migration:
1. Errors with few re-directions: This problem existed with few posts which initially had some title and modified later for some adjustments. Blogger actually doesn't change your URL even if you change your title. It sticks with the same URL at the time of publishing but it wont change after the change of title.
So in migration process the page shown in the image actually had a different URL to that of the post title name. So there were errors with all such pages. My new page wasn't getting any traffic because of this error. So a complete loss of traffic for such pages. So naturally my blog's overall traffic would go down.
2. Broken Links: There were many broken links identified by a WordPress plugin nearly 700 plus, all the image oriented links of blogger, all the pages which were internally linked and all out going external links to various sites were being identified as broken. Most of my posts are internally and externally linked so it would take loads of effort to fix all such links. If I try to unlink all such links then there is no point of blogging. Few internal links too had the same problem of not redirecting to the correct pages of the site as I have explained the issue in my first point.
3. Problems with Labels, Tags and Categories: Blogger has only labels where as in WordPress there are Tags as well as categories for each post. So in migration all the posts were not given a the labels which it had in blogger but all the posts were categorized under uncategorized section. So I had to add labels and tags for each and every post. Since there posts were below hundred it dint hurt much but if at all I had more than hundred then migrating is not a good option.
I personally had no issues with WordPress. It really did have nice Search engine optimizing features if at all I want to blog it is better to start a blog fresh in WordPress but migrating would end you up in some the issues which I had explained above. But it had many good plugins which are really helpful in making your blogging career strong.
Problems with WordPress to Blogger Migration:
Next I tried to revert the process I wanted my blog to be in blogger. So I migrated few posts which I had written in WordPress. This had some different issues. Quite contrary to the ones explained above.
1. Images were broken: All the images which were uploaded in WordPress post had been broken they aren't showing up in blogger. So I had to re upload all the images into their specified places.
2. Videos were broken: I had a plugin installed in WordPress for few YouTube videos they aren't being shown in blogger. So I have to re initiate the process of embedding all my videos at their proper places.
3. Labels became many: All the tags which I have place in WordPress posts migrated as labels in blogger and I had to go to each post and delete all unwanted labels. So as my posts weren't to many I dint feel much.
4. Comments dint import: All the comments which were under the posts which were published in WordPress did not migrate at all. I lost all the comments but really not a big issue because they were not more than ten. So I could afford such loss.
5. Facebook links had to be removed: After I migrated I started a page for this blog and the posts which were published in my page had to be removed as they were all showing 404 errors.
6. Feed burner too needed modifications: I had to change my feed burner address and had to change the sitemap in my webmasters account too.
7. Redirecting problems: I had been facing serious downtime after I switched back to blogger. It says this blog no longer exists in blogger do you want to redirect, and when we press yes it comes to blogger only. But that process was there for one day or so. Next I had been shown my WordPress blog few even after changing my settings to the custom domain. So I removed all my stuff associated with that hosting account I deleted my domain in the hosting. After this my blog many times doesn't show up. It comes at some times and most of the time it is down. This issue I think is a problem with blogger itself because I am unable to identify what's wrong. These days many people are having such custom domain related problems.
So these were the problems which I faced during my migration experiment, hopefully those who would love to migrate need to keep an eye on the issues discussed above. Of course you have many plugins to get everything right but task is hilarious. So better choose a platform before hand and stick to it. If your blog is new with less than ten posts migration is not at all a issue but for more than 100 plus post drop the idea of migrating.
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