Many people use Joomla to publish and manage their websites. Unfortunately, while the Joomla platform is good in most regards, it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re one of the many users who have decided Joomla just isn’t for you and want to transfer Joomla to WordPress, you’re in the right place. The following step-by-step instructions will allow you to begin harnessing the power of WordPress in no time at all.

Step 1 – Install WordPress

Before transferring your Joomla site, you must first choose a web host and install WordPress. Thankfully, there are many web hosting providers to choose from and just as many online tutorials available that will guide you through the WordPress installation process.

Step 2 – Install the FG Joomla to WordPress Plugin

While we seldom recommend the use of WordPress plugins, they can prove quite useful in some cases. In this case, the FG Joomla to WordPress plugin is a necessary tool needed to transfer a Joomla website onto the popular WordPress platform. The following steps will help you use the FG Joomla to WordPress plugin to transfer your Joomla site to WordPress:

1. Type http://yourdomain.com/wp-login.php or http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin.php into the URL bar to log into your WordPress dashboard. It may seem obvious, but you need to replace “yourdomain.com” in the URLs above with the actual domain of your site.
2. Press the “Plugins” and “Add New” buttons on the left navigation menu.
3. Press the “Install Now” button and click “Ok.”
4. Press the “Activate Plugin” button.

Step 3 – Connect Joomla to WordPress

After installing the FG Joomla to WordPress plugin, go inside of your WordPress dashboard and press the “Tools” button on the left navigation menu. Then, click on “Import” and “Joomla (FG)”. A page will appear requiring you to add your Joomla database settings in order to begin the import process.

If you don’t know your Joomla database settings, don’t worry because you can easily find them by going to the admin area of your Joomla website and clicking on the “Server” tab within the “Global Configuration” option.

Your Joomla database information can also be found in the configuration.php file located within the root folder of your Joomla website. You can easily access this information by opening the configuration.php file in notepad or another text editor through the use of an FTP client or file manager. Trust us, it’s easier than it seems. You can do so by performing the following steps:

1. Log into your cPanel.
2. Go to the “Files” section and click on the File Manager icon.
3. A pop-up box will appear. In the box, select the “Open Web Root” option and check the “Show Hidden Files” box and click “Go.” If a pop-up box doesn’t appear, you may have accidentally chosen the “Skip this question” option. If so, that’s ok. To make the box reappear, go to the bottom of your cPanel and click on “reset all interface settings.”
4. Click the + sign next to the “public_html” folder located on the left navigation menu within File Manager. This will expand the menu and display further options.
5. Click on the Joomla installation folder and find the configuration.php file.
6. When you find the file, right click on it and select “Code Edit.”
7. A notepad file will open, showing code that looks similar to the following:

• public $host = ‘localhost’
• public $user = ‘cPanelusername_tgmw1’
• public $password = ‘GVDIuBIg61UUBo’
• public $db = ‘cPanelusername_tgmw1’
• public $dbprefix = ‘joom_’

It’s important to note that the above code is only an example of similar code within the configuration.php file. You will have different actual values than the examples above in order to match your specific database settings.

Once you have the database settings and have provided your database information, you can now connect Joomla to WordPress and begin the import process.

Step 4 – Import Joomla

After connecting Joomla to WordPress, the final step is simply selecting the content you would like to import. You can do this by going to the “behavior” section located on the FG Joomla to WordPress screen and check the boxes corresponding to the content you would like to import. Then, Click on the “Import content’ option.

When the import process has completed, you should notice visual confirmations of everything that was imported. Now, all you have to do is visit your WordPress website or pull it up and refresh the page to see all of your Joomla content on your new fully functional WordPress site.

Step 5 – Take Care of Broken Internal Links

After you have imported all of your Joomla content to WordPress, the final step in the transfer Joomla to WordPress process is to fix all of the broken internal links. To do this, go to your FG Joomla to WordPress importer page, scroll down to the bottom, and click on the “Modify internal links” button. It will automatically modify all of the broken links and put the finishing touches on the migration process.

Joomla to WordPress Troubleshooting Tips

When transferring from Joomla to WordPress, it’s not uncommon to run across database connection errors, but you can easily solve this by using the steps above to recheck your database settings. Often, a single wrong input in one of the boxes can cause an error. Other problems, such as going over in memory and disabled php directives, can occasionally occur as well, but these are few and far between.

If you’re a WordPress novice and new to databases, file transfer protocols, and other intimidating technical terms, transferring your Joomla site to WordPress may seem much more complicated than it actually is. However, by following these steps one by one, you’ll be able to successfully migrate from the limitations of Joomla and begin harnessing the power of WordPress today.