How to Properly Move from Medium to WordPress

After reading our WordPress vs Medium comparison, several readers asked us to how to move from Medium to WordPress. In case you were looking to switch from Medium to WordPress, this step by step guide will help you learn how to properly move from Medium to WordPress.

Before we start, here is a breakdown of all the steps that we will be covering in our Medium to WordPress migration guide:

1. Install and Setup WordPress


2. Export your Medium stories


3. Import Medium stories into WordPress


4. Import Images from Medium to WordPress


5. Setup redirects (If you have a custom domain on Medium)

Step 1. Install and Setup WordPress

Unlike Medium, WordPress is a self-hosted platform. This means that you own and control every aspect of your website.

The first thing you need to do is install and setup WordPress.

You will need a domain name and web hosting for WordPress.

We recommend using either Bluehost or SiteGround because both are official WordPress recommended hosting partners and are rated best WordPress hosting providers by WPBeginner.

Both of these providers understand beginners needs that’s why they are offering WPBeginner users an exclusive 60% discount as well as a free domain name.

After signing up for hosting, you will need to install WordPress. We have a complete step-by-step WordPress installation tutorial.

Once you have installed and setup WordPress, you’re ready to migrate your content to WordPress.

Step 2. Exporting Your Data from Medium

Medium is an innovative publishing platform with many features that help you easily publish your stories. However, when it comes to taking away your data, currently they don’t have the best tools for it.

With the help of this tutorial, you will be able to move your articles from Medium to your WordPress website. However, you will not be able to import your followers, likes, and responses to your articles.

If you have a custom domain setup on Medium, then you might be able to manually setup redirects from your Medium publication to your WordPress site. However, you will have to do it manually for each article.

Having said that, let’s look at how to export your data from Medium.

Login to your Medium account and then click on your profile picture at the top right corner of the screen.

From the fly down menu, click on the ‘Settings’ link to access your Medium account settings page.

You need to scroll down a little to the ‘Export Content’ section and then click on the Download zip button.

This will bring you to the export content page. You need to click on the Export button. Medium will then prepare a zip file with your articles and email you the link to download it.

This email can take a while, so periodically check your inbox for an email from Medium. Inside the email message, you will see a link to download your export file.

Go ahead and download the zip file to your computer and then extract it.

Inside the extracted folder, you will find your Medium articles in plain HTML format, you will also find an XML file called medium.rss.

You are now all set to import your content into your WordPress site.

Step 3. Importing Your Medium Articles into WordPress

First, you need to visit Tools » Import page and click on RSS link.

This will bring up a popup to install the RSS Importer plugin. You need to click on the Install Now button to continue.

WordPress will now download and install the RSS Importer plugin on your website. You need to click on ‘Activate plugin and run importer’ link to continue.

On the next screen, you need to click on the choose file button and select the medium.rss file from your computer.

Click on ‘Upload file and import’ button to continue.

WordPress will now upload medium.rss file and import your articles. Upon success, you will see the number of articles imported as posts with an ‘All done. Have fun’ message at the end.

That’s all, you have successfully imported your content from Medium to WordPress.

Step 4. Importing Your Images From Medium to WordPress

The RSS Importer will not be able to import images from your Medium stories into the WordPress media library. Those images will still be visible, but they will be loaded from Medium servers.

We recommend that you import those images into your WordPress media library. To do this, you will need to use a WordPress plugin called Import External Images.

Watch the video below:

Alternatively, you can follow the text instructions in our guide on how to import external images into WordPress.

Step 5. Setting Up Redirects for Custom Domain

If your Medium stories had a medium.com URL, then you cannot setup redirects.

If you were using a custom domain for your Medium publication, then you can setup custom redirects in WordPress.

First you will need to get all URLs of all your Medium articles and save them to a text file. After that you need to start setting up redirects for all your articles.

There are multiple ways to setup redirects in WordPress. You can follow the instructions in our beginner’s guide to creating redirects in WordPress for detailed instructions.

That’s all, we hope this article helped you properly move from Medium to WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 40 useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Properly Move from Medium to WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Properly Add Your Business Address in WordPress

Do you want to display your business address in WordPress? Usually you can just type the address on your contact page or in a sidebar widget. But this approach is not search engine optimized. In this article, we will show you how to properly add your business address in WordPress with a map and other useful information.

When and Why You Need Business Address in WordPress

Usually most business websites add their address on their contact page. They use a contact form plugin like WPForms to add a contact form.

This works fine for most websites and online business. However when you have a physical business, its beneficial if you add your address in a search engine optimized format.

We recommend adding a contact form as well as other informations like maps, directions, phone number, and business hours in a SEO friendly format.

Let’s see how you can add your business address in WordPress in a SEO friendly way.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Adding a Business Address in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Business Profile plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled Business Profile to your WordPress admin bar. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.

First you need to select the Schema type. Schema.org is the standard micro-data vocabulary used by search engines to show rich snippets and additional information with search results.

Select a schema type that best describes your business.

Under the contact information section, you need to provide the name and address of your business. After entering the address, click on ‘Retrieve map coordinates’ link. The plugin will automatically fetch map coordinates for the address you entered.

Next, you need to provide a Google Maps API key. Generating this key is easy, click on the Get an API key link.

This will take you to the Google Developer Console website. You need to locate ‘Get a key’ button and click on it.

On the next screen, simply click on the continue button to create a new project. You will have to wait for a few seconds as your new project is created.

Once your project is ready, you will be redirected to setup credentials. Enter a name for your project and the domains where this API key will be used. Use asteriks to white label your entire domain. For example,

*.example.com/*

Make sure to replace example.com with your own domain name.

After that click on the create button to continue. Your API Key will now be displayed in a popup.

You need to copy your API key and paste it on the plugin’s settings page.

You can now continue entering other contact information on plugin’s settings page. You can add a phone number, and select a page where users can contact you.

This could be a page with your contact form (See our step by step guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress).

Under the schedule section, you can enter your business hours. Simply click on add business hours button and then select days and hours you are open for business.

If you want to add multiple locations, then check the box next to multiple locations option. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your plugin settings.

Now that you are done creating your business profile, it is time to add it on your website.

Showing Business Address on Your Website

Start by creating a new page in WordPress or edit an existing one. You need to add this shortcode inside post editor where you want to display your business profile.

[contact-card]

Make sure to save your page and publish it.

That’s all, you can now visit the page to see your full business address information. It will have your business address, a link to get directions, phone number, and a map with your business location highlighted.

You can also display your business address in a sidebar. To do that, go to Appearance » Widgets page, and you will see a new ‘Contact Card’ widget under the list of available widgets.

Simply add the contact card widget to a sidebar (See how to add and use widgets in WordPress).

The contact card widget allows you to choose which information you want to display in your sidebar. Simply check options you want to be displayed and then click on the save button.

Adding Multiple Locations for Business Address

If you enabled the multiple locations option in plugin’s settings, then you can manage multiple business locations. Go to Locations » All Locations page and then click on Add New button.

You will now see the Add new location page which looks a lot like a post or page edit screen. That’s because your location is stored as a custom post type.

You need to add your business name in the title and use the post editor to provide any description that you may want to add.

Next, select the Schema type and enter your contact details just like you did on the plugin’s settings page. You will also find a meta box to add your business hours.

Once you are done, you can publish your location.

All your locations can be seen on the custom post type’s archive page which will be found at:

http://www.example.com/location

Replace example.com with your own domain name.

Each location will also have its own permalink URL. You can go to Locations » All Locations and click on ‘View’ link to find a location’s page.

You can also manually add a particular location to a post or page using a shortcode like this:

[contact-card location=2]

Replace 2 with the location’s post id. See our guide on how to find post id in WordPress.

That’s all, we hope this guide helped you learn how to properly add your business address in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Properly Add Your Business Address in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Properly Update Live Published Posts in WordPress

Have you ever had to make significant edits to an already published WordPress post? Maybe you are rewriting an old article or you have to update screenshots because they’re outdated. Since we have to do this on a regular basis on WPBeginner and on our documentations for our suite of products, we have created a workflow that works. In this article, we will show you how to properly update live published posts in WordPress.

The Problem with Updating Live Posts in WordPress

WordPress makes it super easy to create and edit posts. You can edit all posts whenever you want, even after publishing them.

However, when editing live posts, you cannot save them until you are done editing. Saving live posts will immediately make your changes visible.

This is a little problematic for various reasons.

If you’re on a multi-author WordPress site someone may need to approve the changes before they go live.

Not to mention, there will be times where you may not be able to finish all changes in one session.

An easy workaround for this issue is to simply copy a post and paste it as a new draft. You can edit the draft and then paste it to the original post.

The problem with this method is that you cannot set or change featured images, Facebook post thumbnail, tags or categories, etc. This means that you or an editor must make those changes on a live post.

Well if you run into any of these problems, then this article is good news for you.

We will show you how to properly update live posts while making it possible to save them and make any changes without affecting the live version.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Properly Updating Live Posts in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Revisionize plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activating the plugin, you need to visit Posts » All Posts in your WordPress admin. This is where WordPress lists all your published posts and drafts.

Take your mouse to the post you want to edit and then click on the Revisionize link. This will create a new revision for your published post by cloning the existing post.

You can edit the post like you would edit any unpublished draft. You can save your changes as many times as you want without affecting the live post.

You can have your supervisor or editor review the changes for their approval. You can also use public post preview to share it with people outside your organization.

Once you are done editing, you can click on the Publish button. The plugin will then replace your live post with the new version.

What happens to the draft?

It is still stored as a revision draft, allowing you to reuse it again to edit the same published post again.

That’s all, we hope this article helped you learn how to properly update live posts in WordPress. You may also want to see these 14 tips for mastering the WordPress visual editor.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Properly Update Live Published Posts in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

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