How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress (Step by Step). In this blog, we will discuss a few things that one must always keep in mind when switching from Joomla to WordPress. We will then move on to the Joomla migration steps to WordPress site. To make your process smooth and fast, continue reading the block and follow our suggested checklist.
No doubt, Joomla is one of the good content management systems, but it lacks certain features, which is why most people are moving their website from Joomla to WordPress. Are you also planning to move your website to a user friendly and flexible platform like WordPress? Well! If yes, then our migration guide is perfect for you.
Let’s start with How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress (Step by Step).
Things to do Before Migrating Joomla to WordPress
1. Create a migration timeline
First and foremost, create a detailed plan with deadlines so that you do not miss anything important and are in complete control of the migration thing. Secondly, add some extra time to the main tasks so that everything is covered easily and finished without any hassle.
2. Clean the Extra Content on Joomla
Before proceeding with the Joomla to WordPress migration trip, get rid of the unnecessary or duplicate documents. Also, make sure to perform some inventory. By eliminating the unnecessary task, you ensure that nothing unworthy is being ported to the new platform. Review each article, categories, tags, etc., and evaluate how much data needs to be migrated to the new platform.
3. Install and Set up the WordPress Account
WordPress hardly takes any time to install. You can find any hosting companies that will help automatically install WordPress for you in minutes. In fact, there are a few hosting accounts that provide an option to install WordPress with one click inside their dashboard. Once you have set up the WordPress account, all you need to do now is begin importing the content.
4. Search and Select the Best Migration Tool
If you have less content on your Joomla website, you can manually copy paste it to the new platform. But, if you have good content and less time to publish the website, we recommend you hire a developer to perform the task or install a migration tool.
This practice will help save your time, and the whole task of migrating from Joomla to WordPress will be completed within a few hours based on the content size.
Another best part about using migration tools is you do not require any coding experience to do the transfer. There are various plugins that you can install and activate to import data from Joomla to WordPress.
Once you fill in all the details correctly in the Joomla importer, it will ask your permission for transfer and will complete the task in a short time depending on how much content you have.
5. Update Users About The Website Status
It is best to update your visitors or website users that the site is under maintenance and will restart within a short time. This technique encourages your existing or new customers that the delay is for a short period, and they can come back to the site sooner rather than switching to a new portal.
6. Cross check the imported content
Once your Joomla content has been imported to the new platform, make sure to check if everything has been covered and how it looks. In case there are any flaws, you can fix them on time at this step.
7. Make the Necessary Changes to Your Design
Your website design plays a key role in attracting new visitors and building traffic. If your website design is outdated or unappealing, chances are high that visitors will switch to another portal for the same piece of information. Hence, once you have imported your content, check if the theme is properly adjusted or if you want to try a new theme to uplift traffic and site engagement.
8. Add Widgets and Other Functions
You can add widgets to improve your website’s sidebar and footer screen. This feature allows you to add images, content, posts, recent comments, calendar, categories, and other options for your sidebar and footer screen. Similarly, there are other functions that you can install from the WordPress plugin directory for more convenience and engagement.
9. Set up Redirects and Permalinks
People often miss out on this step and soon start noticing fluctuations in their rankings. It is important to permanently redirect the old URLs to the new URLs to get accurate data on traffic and keep up with the previous rankings.
Even if you have kept the same domain name, the link structure will definitely change once you migrate from one CMS to another. Chances are high that the URL structure for the Joomla site and WordPress may differ. As a result, some of your indexed pages on the search engine results page may show a 404 error.
The only way to fix the issue is to set up permalinks and properly redirect your existing visitors and google crawlers to the new URLs.
How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress
After knowing all necessary things, we will explain how to migrate from Joomla to WordPress. Follow the below steps to complete the Joomla to WordPress migration process.
Step 1
First, login to your WordPress admin panel as shown below:
Step 2
Please Provide your WordPress admin username, password and click on the Login button. You should see the WordPress admin dashboard in the following screen:
Step 3
Here you will need to install the “FG Joomla to WordPress plugin” to import your Joomla website to WordPress. Click on the Plugins => Add new plugins and search for FG Joomla in the search bar. You should see the following screen:
Step 4
Click on the Install Now button to install the “FG Joomla to WordPress” plugin. You should see the following screen:
Step 5
Following step is to click on the Activate button to activate the plugin.
Step 6
Navigate and click on the Tools => Import button. You should see the following screen:
Step 7
Now in this step “Run Importer” link below the Joomla (FG) importer tool to start the migration process. You will be asked to provide your Joomla website information as shown below:
Step 8
Provide your Joomla website URL, select File System, provide Joomla web root directory path and click on the test the media connection.
Step 9
Here you should provide your Joomla database information as shown below:
Step 10
Click on the Test the database connection to verify your database.
Step 11
After that provide additional settings as shown below:
Step 12
Finally, click on the Start the import button. Once the Joomla to WordPress migration is complete, you should see the following screen:
Step 13
Finally, click on the “Modify Internal Links” to fix the internal links that might be pointing to your old website.
Setting Up Redirection and Permalink
Well Joomla have different URL structure compared to WordPress website and you will see 404 error when accessing your article via search engines.
To fix this issue, you will need to setup a permalinks and redirection to tell search engine to redirect to the new URL.
Firstly, click on the Settings => Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard. Under common settings click on the post name option and then click on the save changes button.
Also next step is for you to install and activate the Redirection plugin to setup redirection. After the installation, click on the Tools => Redirection. You should see the following screen:
Type your source and target URL and click on the “Add redirect” button to save your changes.
Now your WordPress site will redirect old Joomla website URLs to your new WordPress permalink structure.
Thank you for reading How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress (Step by Step).
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How to Migrate Joomla to WordPress Conclusion
The last and final step is to test everything before you go live. Go through the whole site and review each page, menu, sidebar, etc., to ensure everything is working perfectly.
Once you are sure, go live. The migration process from Joomla to WordPress is not as difficult as it sounds, all you need to do is properly manage it and follow the above listed instructions for smooth operations.
