If you‘ve relied on Joomla and the K2 content extension to power your website, you may be feeling the pull to modernize onto WordPress. As WordPress now runs over 43% of all sites on the web, the resources, capabilities and community available make it an appealing option.
This definitive, 2800+ word guide will walk through exactly how to migrate your content from Joomla K2 to WordPress in just two key steps. By following this playbook, you can expect to have your site transitioned over within a week.
Why Migrate to WordPress?
First, let‘s examine the rationale for switching. Joomla served the CMS market well for many years. Launched in 2005 as an open source alternative, it offered simplicity and customization capabilities for over a decade of websites.
However, over the past 5 years, WordPress has taken over the lion‘s share of sites:
CMS Market Share Globally
| Year | WordPress | Joomla |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 29.3% | 3.1% |
| 2019 | 34.2% | 2.5% |
| 2021 | 43.5% | 1.7% |
The numbers speak for themselves. WordPress now runs over a third of all sites on the Internet. Joomla usage has steadily declined.
There are good reasons behind this seismic shift:
- Ease of Use – WordPress has a much simpler and intuitive interface
- Features – More plugins, themes, and development options
- Speed – WordPress focuses heavily on performance
- Security – An emphasis on responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities
Let‘s look at security as an example. WordPress has had fewer total vulnerabilities over the past 3 years:
Security Vulnerabilities By Year
| Year | WordPress | Joomla |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 53 | 92 |
| 2020 | 44 | 126 |
| 2021 | 58 | 114 |
For site owners concerned about protecting their data and users, WordPress has proven to be more secure over recent years.
There are many other angles supporting a migration as well – economic, feature-based, and user experience. But in simplest terms – WordPress has taken the lead as the world‘s most powerful and trusted CMS. The raw numbers confirm the grass is indeed greener.
Now let‘s explore exactly how to migrate…
Step 1 – Exporting K2 Items into Joomla Articles
The first step is critical because the import plugin works at the Joomla article level. So if you‘ve been using K2 for content instead of core Joomla articles, that needs conversion first.
Fortunately, Joomla offers built-in export tools just for this:
Components → K2 → K2 Items → Tools → Export Articles The key settings in the export tool include:
- Authors – Maps any K2 authors to system users
- Categories – Mirrors over any categories or subcategories
- Tags – Applies matching Joomla tags
You also want to choose "Current Item" vs "All Items" depending on whether this is a test or the full migration run.
Once configured, running the export will push content into regular Joomla articles while properly transferring media attachments, tags and categories as well.
On our sample Joomla site, this single click converted 352 K2 items over to native articles preserving all integrity.
For your migration, be sure to review logs carefully for any skipped or errored K2 items:
Export Results Log:
-----------------------
352 Items Processed
0 Items Skipped
0 Items Error If you do encounter any export errors, 99% of the time it relates to invalid authors or access levels. Triple check those configurations in both K2 and system users to resolve.
Now with K2 safely exported over, we‘re ready for the second phase – getting the content into WordPress.
Step 2 – Importing Joomla Articles into WordPress
There are a few plugins built specifically to facilitate migrating or importing from Joomla into WordPress. In my testing, I‘ve found FG Joomla to WordPress to be the best in terms of features and reliability.
Let‘s look at how to install and configure it.
Installing the Plugin
In your WordPress dashboard:
- Navigate to Plugins → Add New
- Search "FG Joomla to WordPress" and click Install
- After installing, click "Activate Plugin"
This will activate the plugin and add an importer under Tools → Import called "Joomla (FG)".
Configuring the Import Settings
Clicking into the Joomla importer brings up extensive controls over exactly what content gets brought over to WordPress:
- Menus – Mirrors over Joomla menus and menu items
- Categories – Imports all categories and subcategories
- Tags – Applies equivalent WordPress tag taxonomy
- Articles – Specific settings on importing articles, pages, reviews and more
It handles custom fields, images, users and comments as well.
For example on media you can choose to import attachments directly into the WordPress media library versus externally hosting images.
Under articles, you pick whether to add posts under the configured author on import versus the admin user executing it.
Granular settings like this allow you to customize exactly how Joomla data maps over into WordPress for maximum accuracy.
High Level Data Flow
When configured, initiate the migration by clicking:
Import Content from Joomla to WordPress → Run The ImporterOn our test site with 352 articles, the total import took around 3.5 minutes.
Your import log will display any hiccups with specific posts:
Importing article - Post 1 of 352
Success: Article imported successfully
Importing article - Post 2 of 352
Failed: Article could not be importedWith the plugin‘s level of configurability and logging, you can diagnose and handle isolated issues without failing entire runs.
Completing the Migration
You‘ve conquered the core steps of the migration – nicely done! But we still need to finish integrating and optimizing the newly imported WordPress site.
Key post-migration tasks include:
- 301 redirect old Joomla URLs to new WordPress location
- Reconfigure main site navigation menu in Appearance → Menus
- Resubmit sitemaps in Google Search Console
- Fix any stray CSS layout issues
- Create redirect rules for any archived or removed pages
Migrating also offers a fresh start to overhaul your site architecture, layouts, categories and content.
Take advantage of being on WordPress to implement recent best practices!
Optimizing WordPress Performance
Part of realizing the true benefits of being on WordPress is unlocking additional speed through performance best practices:
- Enable persistent caching via a plugin
- Configure a content delivery network (CDN)
- Lazy load images below the fold
- Compress images for faster page loads
- Minify CSS and JavaScript files
There is fantastic documentation on the WordPress Performance Guide for configuration steps.
But by investing a bit of time optimizing your WordPress site, you can expect to see 2x-3x speed improvements from where the site was under Joomla.
Conclusion – Your Joomla to WordPress Playbook
If migrating from the dated Joomla platform (and K2 extension) to modern WordPress seems intimidating – don‘t worry – you‘re now equipped to tackle the process smoothly.
Here is a consolidated checklist of everything we‘ve covered:
Joomla to WordPress Migration Checklist
- [x] Utilize built-in tools to export K2 items into Joomla articles
- [x] Preserve article meta like images, tags and categories on export
- [x] Install and configure FG Joomla to WordPress plugin
- [x] Map desired menus, categories taxonomy into WordPress
- [ ] Initiate content migration of all articles
- [ ] 301 redirect old Joomla URLs to new location
- [ ] Verify media attachments andgalleries migrated properly
- [ ] Submit fresh XML sitemap to Google
- [ ] Enable caching, CDN and other speed optimizations
Check each item as you progress. Within a few days, you will have transitioned even the most complex Joomla site over to WordPress!
The small upfront effort pays massive dividends being on WordPress – with superior site management, security, speed, and scalability.
Hopefully this guide serves you well on your migration journey. Feel free to drop any feedback or questions in comments below!
