However, as you get more serious about your website or your blog, you might find the wordpress.com after your URL too clunky or too telling that you are new to the whole thing. You might want to look into getting yourself your own URL, but you face a dilemma: how do you migrate everything to your new host, now that you are letting go for your free hosting service?
This is where you might have to choose between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Which one is better for you?
WordPress.com: an overview
WordPress.com is easily recognized by anyone who is interested in building a website or starting a blog. WordPress.com is a free hosting service—you just have to sign up for it, and you will instantly get hosting space from WordPress, as well as a unique URL with wordpress.com following it. Building your own website is very easy on this free tool; most of the controls are intuitive, and you do not have to be an expert in coding or web design in order to make things work.
WordPress.com is very popular among newbies to website design, because of its ease of use, convenience, and of course everything is for free. Aside from the free hosting services, you can also enjoy automatic updates and back-ups, built-in protection from spam, tried-and-tested security measures, as well as exclusive plug-ins and services.
However, free WordPress hosting services do not allow for the modification of PHP source codes, uploads of plug-ins, and uploads of themes you have made on your own. This can be very limiting if you want your website or blog to appear in a certain way. Also, third-party ads will be present in your website, and you cannot do anything about it.
WordPress.org: an overview
Another type of WordPress hosting services, WordPress.org is ideal for those who want more creative freedom when it comes to their websites or blogs. This is perfect for those who want a bit of do it yourself feel to their online spaces, because WordPress.org offers thousands of resources for people to truly customize their websites or blogs.
With this type of WordPress hosting services, you do not have to pay for the removal of the wordpress.com in your URL, to remove the third-party ads that can appear on your website, to lift the restrictions on plug-ins and source code modifications, and more.
The main difference between these two WordPress hosting services is that you have to pay a monthly fee for the WordPress.org service. But then again, this amount can be considered a small price to pay for all the creative freedom and possibilities you can enjoy with WordPress.org. You can make your website or blog look as professional as you want it, and can even monetize your website or blog.
How to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org?
Switching WordPress hosting services is not a walk in the park, but it can be quite easy if you follow these steps:
- Rent a server and get a domain name for your site: WordPress.org does not really offer a free hosting service or storage, so you will need to ensure that you have your own domain and server space.
- Transfer your posts and data from WordPress.com to WordPress.org: Once you have your own domain and rented server space, you can now migrate your posts and data from the free hosting service to the paid one. You will find it difficult to encounter a web hosting service provider that does not offer one-click WordPress installation, so it would be quite easy to perform this task.
- Tell everyone about your new site: This step involves redirecting your site’s visitors to the new domain, as well as redirecting the search engines to put your site in the top results whenever someone is searching for relevant keywords pertaining to your site. You will need some sort of “mechanism” for traffic redirection, and you will simply need to log in to your domain registrar and change the DNS settings to point to the WordPress servers.
Moving your site from a good place like WordPress.com to a great one like WordPress.org is easy, and the time, effort, and minimal amount of money you will invest will definitely pay off in the future. When it comes to deciding to move to WordPress.org, make sure to choose the best vps hosting service provider for your WordPress site to ensure optimal performance of your site along with enhanced user experience.
Author Bio
Joy Mali is a certified digital analyst who helps online businesses to perform better on the web with best solutions & advice. Her content is featured on many mainstream sites & blogs. You can follow her on Google Plus.
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