Migrating From Blogger to WordPress Without Losing SEO

The Blogger-to-WordPress move is the platform migration with the longest history and the best-worn path: Google's own blogging platform to the self-hosted standard, driven by the usual outgrowings (ownership, plugins, monetisation, the whole governance stack) — and its SEO stakes concentrate in two Blogger particulars: the URL patterns that don't survive translation, and the redirect ceiling Blogger imposes on blogs leaving without a custom domain. Here's the procedure for both cases, closing this silo with its most classic migration.

The fork that decides everything: custom domain or blogspot?

Case one — you ran a custom domain on Blogger (the lucky case): the domain moves with you, making this a same-domain platform switch: import content, map URL patterns, redirect internally, keep the domain — near-full equity continuity available. Case two — you're on yourname.blogspot.com: the subdomain stays Google's; you're doing a domain move with a constrained redirect toolkit — Blogger permits no server-level 301s, only a meta-refresh/JavaScript redirect via template editing (the classic template hack pointing each blogspot post at its new URL). It transfers readers reliably and equity imperfectly (meta refresh is the last-resort redirect engines honour weakly) — which reframes the project honestly: case two is partly a fresh start, best made early, with the audience and the brand as the assets that transfer fully.

The procedure

1. Import: WordPress's Blogger importer (posts, pages, comments, media — verify media actually localised rather than hotlinking Blogger's CDN; an importer-plugin pass or media plugin fixes stragglers).
2. The URL-pattern translation: Blogger's /YYYY/MM/post-title.html versus WordPress's chosen structure — either configure WordPress to mimic Blogger's dated-with-.html pattern (plugins/permalink settings can — maximum redirect simplicity, permanent legacy pattern) or take the clean structure plus a pattern-mapped redirect layer (the usual recommendation: pay the mapping cost once rather than carry dated URLs forever). Watch the slug divergences — Blogger truncates titles its own way; the importers' slug matching needs spot-checking against the mapping.
3. Redirects per your case: custom domain — pattern 301s in the redirect manager/server, standard verification; blogspot — the template redirect hack installed, the blogspot blog kept alive indefinitely as the pointer (never deleted — it's your redirect infrastructure and squatting protection), and expectations set per the equity ceiling above.
4. The arrival checklist: the full settings sweep (this is a brand-new install — visibility checkbox, permalinks, SEO plugin, the works), Search Console for the new property (Change of Address only works domain-to-domain, not from blogspot), sitemap submitted, and the monitoring weeks.

Frequently asked questions

How much traffic survives a blogspot exit realistically?

Readers and subscribers: nearly all (the redirect works for humans). Search equity: partial — expect rankings to rebuild on the new domain over months rather than transfer overnight, per the meta-refresh ceiling, softened by how much of blogspot-era traffic was brand-and-audience anyway. The earlier the move, the cheaper — which is the standing advice to every growing blogspot blog.

Should I keep Blogger's dated .html URLs in WordPress forever?

Mimicking them makes migration week painless and carries the dated-URL tax permanently; the clean-structure-plus-redirects path costs one mapping and pays forever — the recommendation for any blog planning to be maintained per the refresh doctrine. Either is defensible; deciding by default isn't.

After the move, what makes the new WordPress blog actually grow?

The whole point of gaining the platform: the governance stack configured once, then the real programme Blogger was too small for — the mapped content cadence, the cluster discipline, and the link building that was always the missing engine (welcome aboard — we're the engine room).