...I even called my good friend, Roy Montero (SEO Specialist) and he confirmed that this was a good move....

Here’s what to do.

First. Back up your blogger template. Then if you’ve got a switch to Blogger 2 option do just that. (If the option doesn’t show up just yet be patient, it will as Google rolls out version 2).

Second. Load up Wordpress in your domain and import all posts and comments from your Blogger blog, using the import Blogger blog option.

Third. Log back into your Blogger account and go to the blog “Settings” tab and from their “Publishing”. Click “switch to Custom Domain” and enter the URL for your imported Wordpress blog and save.

Fourth. Enter your old blogspot address in your browser, it should instananeously redirect to the new Wordpress version of your blog.

Google has states that your blogger blog page rank and search engine status will be maintained if you’re using a custom domain. This now avoids the duplicate content penalty that is often observed if you try to simply redirect a Blogger blog using a meta redirect. It’s always best in terms of search engine status to use a 301 redirect. When I tested the old Sig Fig address with this redirect check tool it shows the header to be a 301 redirect, which is exactly what we’re after for SEO.

Blogger itself offers alternative instructions on how to use a custom domain that involve editing CNAME in the DNS settings for your domain. Now, these apply only if you want Blogspot to continue hosting your blog files but with your own domain in the address. I’d not recommend that approach as you don’t then have total control over your blog, although there will be hosting costs to take into consideration should you wish to choose my route.

In order to make this work fully, you will, however, have to edit your Wordpress .htaccess file and add some rewrites to make bookmarks from individual posts work.