Today, we’ll guide you on how to migrate from WordPress.com to WordPress.org (or your own WordPress hosting server. We've already discussed in full detail the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, so now that you have decided, you might want to make the move.
Migrate WordPress.com to WordPress.org
1. Get a hosting account and install WordPress
If you didn’t set a custom domain on WordPress.com, as a first step of the migration, you’ll need to get a hosting account and install WordPress for your new site. We always recommend InMotion as a hosting platform: see why we love InMotion hosting here.
If you did set a custom domain on your WordPress.com blog, install WordPress on a temporary URL on your host and change the DNS settings after the complete migration. As setting a temporary URL differs for each host, you will need to look for your hosting company’s tutorial for this.
2. Export content from WordPress.com
Sign in to your WordPress.com account. Under the Tools menu, click Export. This will take you to a page where you’ll be asked to choose between free transfer or guided transfer.
As you are doing it yourself, choose free.
Then select all content and click Download Export File button.
3. Import content into your self-hosted WordPress site
To import the export file into your new host, go to your self-hosted WordPress dashboard.
Under Tools menu click Import << WordPress. You’ll be asked to install the Import WordPress plugin. After installing it, activate the plugin and run it. Then, choose the file you want to import and upload the file.
In order to make the permalinks identical, make sure you choose Day and name in Settings >> Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard.
4. Set your WordPress.com blog to private
Once the content is migrated to your new host, set your WordPress.com blog to private by going to Settings menu<<Reading << Choose “I would like my site to be private.”
5. Redirect visitors to your new WordPress site
Unlike Blogger.com, you can’t redirect your blog visitors to your new site for free. You’ll need to pay for the redirection ($13/year). Go to WordPress.com blog’s dashboard. Under Store menu item, choose Site Redirect. This 301 redirection will automatically redirect your site visitors and search engines to your new site.
Wrapping Up
As you can see it's fairly easy to migrate WordPress.com to WordPress.org, in just a few steps.
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