Moving From Tumblr to WordPress

Tumblr is one of the most enjoyable and interactive blogging platforms out today.

Easy to use, it’s very attractive to many small businesses that want to get a good-looking blog up and running quickly.

As time passes however, it becomes apparent that Tumblr is not nearly as robust and flexible as other blogging platforms. That’s when it’s time to make a change by moving from Tumblr to WordPress, a blogging platform that offers functionality and myriad features with thousands of plugins and themes.

While moving to WordPress will provide many benefits, there are few tasks more dreaded than moving a website. Getting you past that dread and helping you move your site is the purpose of the rest of this post.

That’s right. Moving from Tumblr to WordPress should be a snap when you follow the steps below from beginning to end.

Overview

During the course of this example, you’ll see how to import the content (posts, pages, links and images) from this Tumblr site to the WordPress site shown below it:

Moving From Tumblr to WordPress Step-By-Step

Step 1

The first thing you need to do is get your new self-hosted WordPress site up and running (these steps will not work with a site hosted on wordpress.com).

Step 2

Proving its worth once again, WordPress provides us with a number of importing tools, one of them for Tumblr.

To access the importer, click on “Tools” and then “Import” in left column menu of the WordPress dashboard:

Step 3

Next, click on the “Tumblr” link on the import page:

Step 4

The Tumblr importer is actually a WordPress plugin. To install it, click the “Install Now” button on the bottom left of the pop-up screen:

Step 5

Once the plugin is completely installed, you’ll see the screen below. Click on the “Activate Plugin & Run Importer” link to move forward:

Step 6

The next few steps may be a bit confusing for non-techies. However, if you follow them exactly, your new WordPress blog will gain the permission it needs to access your existing Tumblr blog. We do this by getting both a consumer and private key and entering them on the screen shown below.

• First, highlight and copy the URL listed in bullet 3 on the current screen (the image below shows the example URL; make sure you use your own which should be shown instead).

• Then, click on the link that’s shown near the top after “To create an app, visit this page:”.

Step 7

On the page that opens, click the “+ Register application” button:

Step 8

On the form shown to you:

• Enter the URL you copied in Step 6 to both the “Application Website” and Default Callback URL” fields.

• Then, enter any name you want in the “Application Name” field.

At the bottom of the form, click the box next to “I’m not a robot” so it turns into a check mark and then click the “Register” button:

Step 9

Now it’s time to get the keys we need to enter in the screen from Step 6. The three screens below show the two keys and the screen where you’ll be using them.

• First, highlight and copy the “OAuth Consumer Key” as shown in the first screen below and paste it into the field on the third screen shown below.

• Then, click on the “Show secret key” link to reveal the secret key as shown in the second image below. Copy and paste the secret key into the field on the third screen shown below.

• Finally, click the “connect to Tumblr” button shown on the third image below.

Step 10

Next, click the “Authorize the Application” link:

Step 11

It’s time to give permission for your new WordPress blog to access your Tumblr blog so it can import your content.

Click on the “Allow” button and you’re all set:

Step 12

The next few screens will look a little weird because they’re actually very wide and we had to chop them down to fit into our post.

On this screen, click on the “Import this blog” button way on the right:

Step 13

While your Tumblr blog is being imported into WordPress, you’ll see an “In progress” message way on the right:

Step 14

Finally, when your Tumblr blog is fully imported into WordPress, you’ll see “Finished!” all the way on the right:

Step 15

You’re all done importing your Tumblr blog content into your new WordPress blog – yay!

You’ll be able to see your posts in your WordPress dashboard:

You’ll be able to see your images in your WordPress media library:

And your visitors will be able to see both:

Redirecting Tumblr Posts to WordPress Posts

When you’re moving from Tumblr to WordPress, you want visitors to your old blog to be redirected to your new one. This isn’t simple to do on Tumblr, but it is easy if you follow the steps below exactly.

You’ll need to make changes on both WordPress and Tumblr. Ready? Let’s get started!

Step 1

Start on WordPress by clicking on the “Plugins” link in left column menu of WordPress’ dashboard.

Then click on the “Add New” button at the top of the plugins page:

Step 2

On the next page, enter “Redirection” in the top right search field and hit enter:

Step 3

The redirection plugin should be the first result on the top left. Click the “Install Now” button to add it to WordPress:

Step 4

Once the plugin is completely installed, you’ll see the screen below. Click on the “Activate Plugin” link to move forward:

Step 5

Next, click on the “Tools” link in left column menu of WordPress’ dashboard and then on the “Redirection” link as shown below:

Step 6

Once on the “Redirections” screen:

• In the “Source URL” field, enter: .*/post/\d+/(.*)
• In the “Target URL” field, enter: /$1
• Make sure the “Regular expression” box on the right is checked.
• Click the “Add Redirection” button.

Step 7

The redirection has now been added:

Step 8

This redirect will only work if you’re using “Post name” permalinks in your WordPress blog.

To make sure you are, click on the “Settings -> Permalinks” link in left column menu of WordPress’ dashboard:

Step 9

Your permalinks setting should look like the ones shown below (except it should show your Web address).

If it doesn’t, click the circle next to “Post name” and then click the “Save Changes” button.

Step 10

Now it’s time to move over to Tumblr.

Once you log into Tumblr, head to your dashboard. At the top right of the dashboard, you’ll see a little person icon.

Click that icon and select your blog:

Step 11

Next, click the “Edit Appearance” link on the right side of your blog’s management page:

Step 12

On the next page, click the “Edit theme” button:

Step 13

Near the top left on the next screen, click the “Edit HTML >” link:

Step 14

In the code window that opens, look for the “<head>” tag:

Step 15

Copy and paste the following code into your template right after the “<head>” tag:

<meta name=”description” content=”this is a legacy blog page, and will redirect to the same post on my new blog”>

<script type=’text/javascript’>

var new_slug = window.location.pathname;

var new_root = “http://your-new-url.com”;

var new_url = new_root + new_slug;

</script>

Make sure to change “http://your-new-url.com” to match your new WordPress site’s URL address (e.g. https://smallbiztrends.com):

Step 16

Once you complete Step 15, click on the “Update Preview” button and then click on the “Save” button:

Step 17

In the code window that’s still open, look for the “<body>” tag:

Step 18

• Copy and paste the following code into your template right after the “<body>” tag:

<script type=’text/javascript’>

window.location = new_url;

</script>

• Then, click on the “Update Preview” button and then click on the “Save” button as you did in Step 16.

• Lastly, click on the left-facing arrow on the top left of the code window.

Step 19

Click on the “Exit” button on the top left:

Step 20

Test your redirect by clicking on your Tumblr blog’s address (first image).

That link should now take you to the home page of your new WordPress site (second image).

 

 

Step 21

Test individual post redirection by entering in one of the old Tumblr blog post’s URL (first image).

It should take you to the same post on your WordPress blog (second image).

Wrapping Up

Now that we’ve shown you all the steps in moving from Tumblr to WordPress, you’re ready to go. There’re a lot of stages, but if you take the process one step at a time, you’ll find the site migration straightforward and doable.

Tumblr Photo via Shutterstock

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