How to Migrate from Medium to WordPress: Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Migrating from Medium to WordPress is a smart choice if you’re seeking more control over your blog or website. While Medium offers simplicity, WordPress provides unmatched flexibility and customization options. By choosing to migrate from Medium to WordPress, you gain access to a vast array of themes, plugins, and features that can help you better manage your content and boost your site’s performance.

Using a reliable WordPress Website Builder makes it easier to migrate from Medium to WordPress, even if you’re new to the platform. With WordPress, you can easily import all your Medium content, ensuring a smooth transition. If you want to take your site to the next level, you can also learn how to Create a WordPress Theme and build a customized design that perfectly matches your brand

Prerequisites to Migrate From Medium to WordPress

When you are ready to move from Medium to WordPress, there are certain things that you need to be ready with before you actually make a move. Since you were publishing your content on Medium till now, you were not really worried about the web hosting, domain name, installation, etc. But now that you are going to make a new start, you would need all these things before you actually bring your website into existence.

Step 1: Choose a Web Host Server and Domain Name

Selecting a domain name is a crucial aspect of creating your online identity. What is a domain name and how it works to give you expected results? It makes sense to understand that when you are going to make your digital identification, then you should pay attention to each and every corner that can add value to your website. And the domain name is the main thing because that’s how your users will remember you. Keywords are still important for your domain name. So, be sure that you are keeping everything in mind. Also, domain vs web hosting, learn the difference to be more clear about the things involved.

Next is website hosting. Since WordPress is a self-hosted platform so you will have to have an efficient web host service provider to host your website. A competent web host provider is the one that provides you space over the internet. There are several WordPress web host providers available in the market.

Step 2: Install WordPress

It may seem a little overwhelming for those who are not so familiar with WordPress. But not to worry about it’s really simple to install WordPress. And after you have a domain name, web hosting account, it’s time to install WordPress. Generally, web host service providers such as Bluehost, Kinsta, SiteGround, etc. come with one-click WordPress installation features. That means you don’t have to explicitly install WordPress, it will be done with just a one-click.

Furthermore, one thing that people get confused with is where exactly to migrate. I mean, make sure you know the WordPress.org vs WordPress.com difference. Because that’s where the biggest confusion takes place. Well, WordPress.org is the self-hosted service and WordPress.com is the freemium website hosting service. Whereas, WordPress.com provides you a sub-domain i.e. yourwebsitename.com/wordpress.com and this certainly does not look professional at all. Therefore, it is required to look for ways to optimize your WordPress website in every way possible.

Now, after preparing the plot you are ready to migrate from Medium to WordPress. In order to do it rightly follow the following steps.

Step3: Export Content From Medium

Perhaps the easiest way to import content from Medium is via the ‘Medium to WordPress Importer’ tool. This tool is no less than a boon when it comes to migrating from Medium to WordPress. This tool beautifully gathers your entire content from Medium and exports it to a file. And this file is fully compatible with WordPress. It is a free tool,

• When you visit the mediumtowp.com, you will have to enter the following details.
  • Medium website URL
  • Name
  • Email Address
• After filling up the information click on the ‘Export my Medium Website’ button to confirm your action. Also, there are two things to be careful about. The process of exporting your files will depend on that i.e. if you are using a custom domain or not.
• Now, if you have a custom domain name with Medium, then your website shall immediately begin to export. Whereas, if you are not using the custom domain name, then you will be given a Medium export file.
• Here, you are required to log in to your Medium account and click on your profile picture.
• Head to the bottom of the drop-down menu and go to Settings. Here you shall see an option for ‘Download your information’, hit the ‘Download.zip’ file.
• However, on the next page, click on the Export option. After this, an email will be sent to you with your Medium export file. And you now need to download the file inclusive and upload it into the Medium to WordPress Export Tool.
• Once you go back to the homepage of the tool, you shall see an option to Export my Medium Website. Once you click on this option, you shall see a message saying ‘Congratulations, your export file is successfully generated’ and a button to download the file. So, click on the ‘Download Your Medium Export File’. Your file is being downloaded now.

Pro Tip: Backup Before and After Migration
Always create a full backup of your Medium content before starting the migration process. Once the content is transferred to WordPress, set up automatic backups on your new site too.

Step4: Import Your Medium Content to WordPress

• This makes you ready to import your content to WordPress. For that, you need to log in to your WordPress Dashboard. Now, go to Tools → Import in the left side panel. This will show a list of importer tools. But you need to choose ‘WordPress’ present, probably at the bottom. Click on the ‘Install Now’ link to initiate the downloading.

• After the WordPress importer is installed, click on the ‘Run Importer’. This shall take you to the WordPress importer page. You shall now see an option to select a file to upload.
• Now, hit the ‘Choose File’ button and select the Medium export that you have downloaded in the above step with the help of the Medium to WordPress Importer Tool. after selecting the file, click on the ‘Upload file and import’ button to confirm your choice.
• Right on the next page, you will be asked to assign authors for the imported content. You are free to choose either the author from the Medium or you can create a new user. However, you can assign the posts to your existing WordPress authors as well.
• Also, make sure you have checked the ‘Download and import file attachments’ box that ensures to include images while transferring the rest of the data.
• In the end, click on the ‘Submit’ button. Now this will automatically import all your Medium content. As soon as the import will complete, you will receive a success message.
• Go to your WordPress dashboard and make sure your all posts have been perfectly imported.

Step5: Import Missing Media Files

While you are importing content from Medium to WordPress, there can chances where not all the images as well as other media content fails to show up in the posts. Don’t worry this is a pretty common issue that arises when you migrate from Medium to WordPress. And the solution to this problem is even simpler. However, you can do it manually as well, but you may find it a little tiresome.

Therefore, you can anytime go for a WordPress plugin. Yes, to help you manage your images on your WordPress website you can use a plugin. You can use the ‘Auto Upload Images’ WordPress plugin. This is a comprehensive plugin that will automatically pull all images from a given URL or any external source. However, there are several plugins that you can use as per your needs and goals. You can quickly improve the performance of your WordPress website by using plugins. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about how to install a WordPress plugin with ease.

Step6: Optimize Permalinks

Keeping SEO in mind, the URL structure is an essential aspect to consider. You can mass change previous URLs in the website database after migration. And it is required to do that for making things work in a proper manner. URL structure helps in the accessibility and visibility of your website. Make sure there are no abrupt links that will hinder the performance of your website. You need to find and fix broken links in WordPress so that it should work perfectly. The quickest way to ensure that the broken links will not negatively impact the SEO of your website is to use redirects. However, you can use the best WordPress redirect plugins to fix this issue. You can download free templates to create a website.

Step7: Set Up Redirects

To prevent losing traffic from your existing Medium articles, it’s important to set up 301 redirects from your Medium posts to your new WordPress URLs:

• Create redirects on Medium: Unfortunately, Medium doesn’t offer an automatic redirect feature. You’ll need to manually link back to your new WordPress site from your Medium posts.
• Use WordPress plugins: On WordPress, you can use plugins like Redirection to set up redirects if you want to maintain some of your Medium URLs.

Step8: Optimize Your New WordPress Site for SEO

Once you’ve migrated from Medium to WordPress, optimizing your site for SEO is essential for increasing visibility and traffic:

• Install an SEO plugin: SEO Plugins can help you optimize each page and post for search engines.
• Submit your sitemap: Use tools like Google Search Console to submit your new site’s XML sitemap to search engines.
• Optimize images: Compress your images using plugins like Smush to improve site speed, a critical factor for SEO.
• Set up Google Analytics: Don’t forget to install Google Analytics to track your traffic and understand user behavior on your new site.

Why Migrate From Medium to WordPress

If you have come this far, it’s sure that you are looking for ways to migrate from Medium to WordPress. And your reason could be anything for doing that. There can be multiple reasons for that but this certainly does not mean that Medium is not a great platform to be on. However, for all the beginners and fresh writers out there Medium is a great choice, to begin with. You don’t have to invest anything, just write quality content and engage your audiences. However, if you wish to make your own website or to be more precise your own blog. Medium is a great choice, but like every other online platform, Medium has some limitations as well. These limitations force you to think of migrating to some other platform.

So, before we learn how-to, it makes sense to know why. Why people tend to migrate from Medium to WordPress. Well, there are some common reasons that make a user switch from Medium to WordPress. Below are some of them:

• Medium owns the right to use your content for its promotional activities. Whereas, WordPress gives you complete freedom to control your content.
• Medium has fewer monetization options. You can not use third-party sponsorship or advertising on Medium.
• The offered Medium functionality is limited. You can just simply publish your content without making any big changes such as adding contact for etc.
• You do not own your content on Medium. Rather, WordPress gives you full control to manage and publish new content and create successful and SEO-friendly blog posts.

So, let’s now see how you can migrate from Medium to WordPress and explore new things to create your website a success.

Pro Tip: Keep Your Medium Account Active for a While
After migrating from Medium to WordPress, keep your Medium account active for a period of time to avoid losing traffic. You can write a short post on Medium informing readers about your move and provide a link to your new WordPress site.

Migrate from Medium to WordPress – In Conclusion

When you create a website, you need to take care of multiple things so that your website works flawlessly. Whereas, when you are available on any online platform, then you can solely focus on your content. There are many online platforms that allow you to publish your content. And Medium is one of the strongest solutions you would find. It’s natural that we try to choose the best option to build a website for your business, blog, profile, etc. You can find amazing free WordPress themes to help you with the same. However, make sure to keep in mind few things while choosing the WordPress theme, for best outcomes.  At the same time you can choose to use WordPress theme builder, and come up with a website without any coding required. Are you wondering what WordPress theme is it, or want to create a WordPress child theme, else start right-away with WordPress theme development using Bootstrap.

Medium is a highly influential platform to publish your articles and blog posts. It already has a huge reader-base that you don’t have to do any extra effort like you would have been doing to drive traffic to your website. Medium is a perfect platform for writers to connect with the right kind of audiences in no time. When you are posting content on Medium, you automatically get that freedom. But, if anytime in the future, you think to elaborate your reach or wish to expand, I am afraid you can’t do that. Therefore, you will have to switch to any other platform. And if you are thinking of switching to WordPress, which is like the one of the best open-source CMS out there, and of course you can reap countless benefits by using the content management system. and you are sure how to do it, then reading this tutorial will help you do that. This way you will have complete control over your blog. So, let’s learn how to migrate from Medium to WordPress.

So, this brings us to the end of this step by step guide to migrate from Medium to WordPress. As you have seen that migrating from Medium to WordPress is not that tough. Unarguably, Medium is a self-sufficient platform to get started with. And if people like your writing they would read you more and you will get the opportunity to write more. This is an obvious outcome that any writer would want and expect. Because it is a writer’s job to find and engage the target audience with content. Once you are available online and you have gained a good amount of traffic and build a strong reader-base. It’s essential to provide them useful and expected content.

Building an audience for your blog is a big thing and one would not want to lose the users they have gained so far. When you are working with WordPress, you are exposed to multiple features and functionalities to make your website. Especially, you can dig the WordPress plugins repository to search for essential plugins for your WordPress that you wish to include in your website. Make sure you know how many plugins your website needs right now and you are not bloating your website with unnecessary plugins. Overall, WordPress is a beginner-friendly content management system you can use to make your online presence. So, let me know how migrating from Medium to WordPress went for you in the comments below.