WordPress has a built-in tool for exporting posts. It extracts your posts into a downloadable file that you can import to another WordPress site. However, that exporter does not include the media files such as the featured images of those posts. So it can be confusing to some as to why are there no images on the new site after importing those posts.
Here, we will provide steps on how to properly export WordPress posts WITH their images and then import them to another website.
First, how to export the WordPress posts
On the website where you’ll be exporting the posts, download and install the “Export media with selected content” plugin by Joost de Keijzer. This is the plugin that will allow you to export posts with their images.
Then on the admin side, go to Tools and select Export. Choose what to export by selecting Posts and make sure you check the box that says “Export media with selected content”. Once done, just hit the download button to export the file. The file will be an XML document.
How to import the downloaded WordPress posts into the other website
Go to the new website’s admin and go to Tools then select Import. From there, you will need to install WordPress’ importer tool. You’ll see it named as “WordPress”, and just click Install Now.
Once the installation is done, you may then import the XML file that was exported from the first website.
You will be prompted to assign authors to the new posts. Select from the dropdowns the names of the authors you want as replacements for the old authors. Or you can just create new ones right there as well.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you also check the box where its says “Download and import file attachments”. This will make sure that the mages from the old website are also imported to the new site. It will take a few moments depending on how big the file is on how long it will take to import.
And that’s it, you are all done importing your WordPress posts!
Remember to also redirect links from the old site to the new
An optional but important next step is to redirect links from the old site to the new. The reason is that posts from the old site will have the same URL slugs and content with the new site. This will not be good for the new site’s SEO ranking.
You will need to use any good 301 redirecting plugin on the old site and from there, you will need to redirect each post’s link to their counterpart links from the new site.
To learn the easiest way how to redirect links, click here.