Do you want to move your Medium Blog to WordPress?
Medium is a great blogging platform that connects writers with the right audience. However, if you’re looking to expand your blog, you should consider moving to self-hosted WordPress. By doing so, you’ll have complete control over your content and how the blog will look like.
For that reason, in this article, we’ll show you the easiest way to move Medium Blog to WordPress.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Why You Should Move from Medium to WordPress
Although Medium has its strengths, WordPress is better than Medium in several ways:
- Functionality. Unlike Medium, WordPress isn’t just for publishing written content. It comes with various plugins to improve your site’s functionality, such as creating contact forms or online shops.
- Ownership. In WordPress, the content is exclusively yours. Meanwhile, Medium has the right to use your content for its promotional purposes.
- Monetization. Medium has fewer monetization options. It doesn’t allow third-party sponsorships or advertising like WordPress does.
Step-by-Step Guide to Move From Medium to WordPress
This tutorial will show you the most convenient method to migrate your data from Medium. To ease the process, we will use the Medium to WordPress tool.
1. Choose a Hosting Service and a Domain Name
To set up a WordPress website, you need a hosting service. As there are many choices available, consider these factors when searching for the right provider:
- One-click installation — if your provider doesn’t have this feature, you’ll have to install WordPress manually.
- Resources — ensure that you’ll have enough bandwidth, storage, CPU, and so on. Look out for their upgrade options, as well.
- Ease of use — the control panel should have a friendly interface, so you won’t have a hard time managing the blog.
- Support — check whether the provider’s support is reputable and reliable.
- Cost — choose a hosting plan that suits your needs and budget best.
Once you have a hosting plan, register for a domain name that matches your blog name. If you haven’t come up with one, check out this article titled “Blog Name Generators: 10 Best Options Compared.” These tools can also check whether the desired domain name is available.
2. Exporting Data from Medium
After setting up your blog, let’s start the migration process:
- Login to your Medium site. Click on your profile picture and select Settings.
- Scroll down to the Account section, where you’ll find the option to download your information.
- Click Download .zip. The zip file will be sent to the registered email address.
- Find the download link in your inbox and select Download My Archive.
- Since WordPress can only import XML files, you need to convert the file you’ve downloaded. To do this, go to the Medium to WordPress importer tool and fill in your Medium URL, name, and email address.
- Hit the Export My Medium Website button, and then upload the zip file.
- Press the export button again, and the file should be available for download.
3. Importing Data to WordPress
Now you’re finally ready to use WordPress! First thing first, we need to import your Medium data to the CMS:
- Open your WordPress dashboard and head over to Tools >> Import.
- Find the WordPress importer tool and click Run Importer.
- Choose your XML file and press Upload file and import.
- You’ll be asked to assign the author of the content. You can import the author from your Medium site, create a new author, or assign an existing user.
- Tick the Download and import file attachments box and submit the form.
Congratulations! Your data have been successfully imported. You’ll be able to see your entries in the Posts section.
If the import fails, try again in a few minutes until the import is successful. Don’t worry; your data won’t get duplicated.
4. Checking for Missing Images
Images might not be imported properly during the migration process. Hence, it’s crucial to check for missing images before you announce your blog to the world.
Go to Media >> Library and see if all of your images are there.
If you used images from third-party websites like Unsplash, check your posts to see whether the images are included.
In case some images are missing, use the Auto Upload Images plugin to import external images to your posts.
Once the plugin is activated, update your posts. The plugin will be prompted to collect those third-party images.
5. Adding Redirects
Redirects are necessary for search engines to recognize that your posts have been moved. What’s more, those who visit the old URL will be directed to the new blog.
Unfortunately, redirects will only work if you used a custom domain for your Medium site. If you had a http://medium.com URL, you cannot set up redirects.
There are four types of redirects: 301, 302, 307, and Meta Refresh.
The most common type is 301, and one that is recommended for SEO. It indicates that the page has permanently moved to a new location. See this article to know how to add 301 redirects in WordPress.
6. Customizing Your Blog
It’s time for the fun part: building and customizing your blog!
For the theme, you can choose one from the WordPress theme directory or browse through third-party sources like ThemeForest or Colorlib. What’s great, many free and premium selections are available, so you can choose the one that fits your budget.
After you settle with a theme, go to Appearance >> Theme and start modifying the look of your blog. You can change the background, add widgets, edit the menu, and more!
Don’t forget to add some pages for better navigation. For instance, add About and Contact pages, so people know how to reach you.
Be sure to install some plugins to extend the features of your website. You can add social sharing functions, image galleries, contact forms, and others. The possibilities are endless!
7. Optimizing Your Website
With WordPress, you have the control to manage and improve your site performance. There are several things you can do upon migration from Medium to WordPress:
- Install an SSL certificate — SSL encrypts the connection between the server and the browser. It secures sensitive information so hackers can’t use it against you.
- Find broken links — confirm that all links have been redirected.
- Make sure your site is responsive — for better SEO and user experience, ensure that your website will appear beautifully on any device.
- Boost your site’s speed — use some plugins like Jetpack or WP-Cache.
- Improve SEO — apply on-page and off-page SEO techniques so your site can rank higher on result pages.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, you can move your Medium Blog to WordPress with no much difficulty. I hope this article has helped you in creating a new home for your blog.