My new design using Sparkle has gone splendidly to the point I want to replace my Wordpress site ASAP. I just can’t wait for Sparkle v3 to come out. So here’s my question!
I have existing blog entries in WP (not too many) that I want to move over to Sparkle (I’ll be making it similar to what Duncan has for the Sparkle site). Two of those posts rake in most of my visitors via Google. Is there a way to keep the post addresses? I don’t want to start all over again.
It depends on the new versus existing addresses (URLs) as to what is changing. So it’s hard to give a good answer without knowing the existing and new address (URL).
Thank you both. Right now the url for each post looks like this: www.mysite.com/singapore-playgroup/. So I’m assuming I’m just going to have to start over. It’s a pity but I don’t mind too much as I now have a site design that I love and reflects me - not just some boring Wordpress template I can’t customise without big bucks. I should have started with Sparkle to begin with!
Given that you don’t have too many blog entries, you could add a blog script to your site. These work in much the same way as Wordpress (but less complicated). This can be incorporated into your sparkle page just by adding a small piece of code through a code widget in your page. The blog itself would be accessed through a separate URL on your domain in much the same way as Wordpress does at the moment. You could then copy and paste your blog posts from the admin area of Wordpress into a blog post in your your new system. All the blogs you add through the admin area will automatically show up in your sparkle site, so you won’t have to continually update your Sparkle project.
Thank you @francbrowne. I was considering that using the simple blog script but I am banking on Sparkle v3 having a blogging function so I don’t want to add a blog script just at the moment. If v3 doesn’t provide blogging, then I’ll have the script installed. But I’m crossing my fingers!
Copy the blogs from the old site to the new site without any changes. Don’t do any updates or announcement/greetings to the new site. Users must feel they are still connected to you. Since you are self hosting the old site there is no urgency to take it down. Contrary, we’re going to use it to your advantage.
Go to each old blog post, or just the one’s generating 80% of your traffic and delete most of each blog, leaving the title and first two sentences. After the last sentence of each, write a statement saying “click here for more”. Create an external link to the full blog post on your Sparkling new site.
Go into Google Search Console and register both sites as you being the owner, if you haven’t already done so. This tells Google that both sites are the owner of the content so the new site won’t be viewed by Google as a content pirate.
Keep the old site active for a few months and monitor your search traffic in Google Search Console. Once you see your traffic rising on the copied blog posts, and you see traffic coming into the new site without coming from the old site, you can delete the old site.
You’re self hosting, so unless you really no what you are doing, one mistake in a redirect could cause all kinds of problems. Redirects when done correctly are beneficial to the overall site. Content is different. You want to make sure the content, and thus user experience, flow frictionless from the old site to the Sparkling new site.
Thank you so much @thetravelhikelife! You’re ever so kind to help me so.
The issue is (and I am not a technical person at all I’m afraid) is that I’ll be using the same domain. And I’m assuming that your suggestion would work if I were changing domain names? I only started the blog last year and thankfully don’t have that many posts to move over (I’m almost complete). So I think I just have to resign myself to starting over. My fault for not following Duncan’s suggestions to begin with and do the blog his way.
Good news! No broken links after publishing! I’m over the moon!!! I followed Duncan’s instructions on how to make a clean url for each blog entry and because of the way I had set up my Wordpress site initially, the urls are exactly the same.
Thank you to all for helping! Everyone is very kind and generous here and I really appreciate all your help
