How to Migrate Your Blog from Tumblr to WordPress
Among the many reasons why anyone would want to start a blog, the “because you can” might not be the best one. It is, however, the reason that explains the state of blogging this far along into the popular pastime’s lifeline – it’s open for everyone. Websites such as Tumblr, which is a mix of a blogging platform and a social network, are a very convenient entry point into blogging.
But as you leave that entry point behind you and become serious about blogging, you might soon notice that simply put, nothing beats having your blog on your own website. So you’ll turn to WordPress and maybe stumble upon this article in your search for ways to migrate your Tumblr blog to WordPress.
And that’s what we’re here to help you with! In this article, you’ll be able to read about:
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There are a couple of things that make Tumblr a very appealing choice for fledgling bloggers. Tumblr is a blogging platform that’s free to use, with great capabilities for posting multimedia content, and a unique social component that’s hard to match.
On top of it all, Tumblr allows connecting a custom domain to your account. You can use themes – both free and premium – to change how your blog and post look like on Tumblr. There are also limited options to improve your blog’s search engine ranking, although they’re not too easy for regular users to find.
If you’d compare it to WordPress, however, you’d soon find that the only real advantage Tumblr has is the social aspect. WordPress beats it in every other way. The content management system allows endless customization through free and premium WordPress themes that aren’t limited to blogging – just like WordPress isn’t. When it comes to SEO, WordPress has a host of free tools that will help users who are not too technically savvy.
And while it’s true that having a WordPress website will cost you some money because of hosting and possibly other services, the peace of mind you get from that is the best possible parry to Tumblr’s social networking theme. With WordPress, you’re truly in charge of your website and the content.
Moving from Tumblr to WordPress can be important, so you should have the destination prepared well first. That means that you should do the following before you start moving your blog from Tumblr to WordPress:
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Find a good hosting provider – there are a couple of things to be on the lookout for, but when in doubt, go with the ones WordPress recommends.
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Install your WordPress website – some hosts will install the website, while others will offer one-click installation.
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Purchase a domain name – if you don’t have one, you can usually do this when choosing the hosting provider.
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Get familiar with your new website – you can start by installing a theme and some plugins and getting to know how WordPress works.
When your WordPress website is up and running – it doesn’t have to be available for visitors just yet though – you can start the migration process.
Unless you have only a couple of posts on Tumblr which you can move manually by copying and pasting them into WordPress posts, you have two options for moving content from Tumblr to WordPress. One is to pay for a service that will do it for you. The other is to install a plugin and do it on your own. We’ll explain how to do the second one.
From your WordPress website’s dashboard navigate to Tools > Import. There, you’ll find a Tumblr importer tool you can install and use to move the content. You should keep in mind, however, that the importer tool hasn’t been updated in years. You’ll be using it at your own risk.
When you run the importer, it will show you a page with the instruction on what you need to do next. For starters, you will need to visit Tumblr’s Applications page, where you’ll be able to register an application.
You’ll be free to choose the application name, and the administrative contact email will be the one you’ve used to create your Tumblr blog by default. For the application website and the default callback URL, it would be best to copy your WordPress website’s URL as provided by the Tumblr Importer. Once done, you’ll get access to the OAuth Consumer Key, as well as the secret key.
You’ll have to copy these two keys into the corresponding fields in the Tumblr Importer tool. Once done, you can press the Connect to Tumblr button to connect your Tumblr blog and your WordPress website.
Once you connect your website to Tumblr, you will have to authorize the application. After that, you’ll finally be able to choose the Tumblr blog – if you connected multiple – and assign the author who will get the byline for the post. After that, clicking the Import this blog button should put the process in motion. It might take a while, so stay patient.
If you wait for the process out, you’ll likely find your Tumblr posts under your WordPress posts, images and all, with the author you assigned them. With that, you’ve gone as far as you could when it comes to transferring your blog from Tumblr to WordPress.
Your next step would be to set up redirects for your Tumblr posts to your new WordPress posts. There’s a pedestrian way of doing it that works best if you don’t have too many posts. From your Tumblr page, navigate to Settings > Edit Appearance.
From there, you should click on the Edit Theme button that will allow you the option to edit the code of your theme. Press Edit HTML, and you’ll have access to the theme’s code.
In the code, you’ll have to add the redirect for every single post you have in Tumblr, following this pattern:
if(window.location.href.indexOf("---enter post number----") != -1) { window.location.replace("---enter corresponding WordPress link----"); } else if(window.location.href.indexOf("---enter post number---") != -1) { window.location.replace("---enter corresponding WordPress link----"); }
You should place this code between script tags and replace the post numbers and WordPress links with the ones on your Tumblr and website. Then make sure to put that entire code somewhere within your site’s <head> tag. Feel free to use “else if” to add as many links as you need.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
When the novelty of Tumblr and its social networking features starts wearing off, you might start seeing WordPress as the next destination for your blog. You don’t have to worry about the existing content on your Tumblr website, though – it’s not too complicated to migrate it all over to WordPress, even though it can be a bit tedious, especially with setting up all the redirects. But if you power through it, there’s no reason why your successful Tumblr blog could not become a successful WordPress blog.
