There’s no doubt that Blogger makes starting a blog easy, but there may come a time when you realize you’re not building any equity in your own website and decide to pack up your content and move. In general, there are a couple options at that point: import your entries from Blogger or mothball the Blogger site and start fresh on the new site.

The default answer for a number of bloggers would be to import the blog entries from Blogger, set up a redirect page, and go on their merry way. But, before you load up that moving van, stop and think about what you can’t take with you. How old is your Blogger blog, how many pages are well indexed in the search engines, and do you already have PR? In other words, how established is the Blogger blog?

Instead of just importing your entries from Blogger (which may actually land you some duplicate content penalties if you don’t take down the Blogger blog), consider starting fresh on your new blog. Making the transition if you have an established readership may be delicate, but it’s not impossible.

Plan for a two to four week transition and mark the date in your planner. That should give you enough time to prepare your new blog and ease your readership into the change.

  • Set up the new blog and create your introductory post.
  • Update the links you have control over (profiles, signatures, directories, etc.) to point to your new blog.
  • Start blogging regularly and remember to urge readers from your Blogger blog to update their links and feeds.

While you’re working on building up your new blog, it’s time to gradually phase out the Blogger blog.

  • Optimize your monetization. Make sure your blog can earn although you won’t be actively promoting it.
  • Announce the move in a blog entry and include a link to your new blog and feed.
  • Update all your links to point to the new blog, including the feed links (don’t forget the feed link in the head meta).
  • Add a notice at the top of the page and at the end of the content directing new traffic to your new blog.
  • For the final week or two of the transition, update the Blogger blog every few days with summaries from the blog entries on your new blog (with links, of course).

Of course, if you haven’t established your Blogger blog, then importing all of your entries to a new blog may be the ideal solution. Just make sure you weigh the pros and cons of your decision first.

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