How to Move Your WordPress Blog to ULTRV

WordPress powers a huge chunk of the web, and it's served a lot of people well. But if you've ever stared at a dashboard full of plugin updates, security patches, and theme conflicts and thought "I just want to write" — you're not alone.

Moving away from WordPress doesn't have to be dramatic. You can export your entire blog and bring it into ULTRV while your site is still live on its original domain. No downtime, no rush, no broken links until you're ready.

Here's how it works.

Step 1: Export your content from WordPress

WordPress has a built-in export tool that bundles all your posts, pages, and metadata into a standard XML file.

In your WordPress admin, go to Tools → Export

Select All content (or just Posts if you prefer)

Click Download Export File

This gives you a .xml file — the WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) format. It contains your post titles, content, publish dates, categories, tags, and references to your images.

Your WordPress site stays completely untouched during this process. Nothing changes for your readers.

Step 2: Import into ULTRV

In your ULTRV dashboard, head to your blog settings and look for the Import option. Select WordPress as the source and upload the XML file you just exported.

ULTRV will parse the file and do the following:

Import all your posts with their original titles, content, and publish dates

Fetch your images — ULTRV downloads every image referenced in your posts from your WordPress site and stores them locally, so your content is fully self-contained

Preserve your tags — any tags or categories from WordPress are carried over

Keep your slugs — your URL structure stays the same, which matters when you eventually point your domain over

The import runs in the background. Depending on how many posts and images you have, it could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Step 3: Review your imported content

Once the import is complete, all your posts will appear in your ULTRV dashboard as drafts. This is intentional — it gives you a chance to:

Spot-check formatting (WordPress HTML can be quirky)

Verify that images loaded correctly

Remove any WordPress-specific shortcodes or plugin artifacts that don't translate

Decide which posts you want to keep and which ones have outlived their relevance

When you're happy with a post, publish it. Your imported content goes live on your ULTRV blog URL immediately.

What about your domain?

Here's the key thing: you don't need to move your domain yet. Your WordPress site can keep running on your domain while your ULTRV blog is accessible at yourblog.ultrv.com. This gives you time to review everything without any pressure.

When you're ready to make the switch, pointing your domain to ULTRV is straightforward — we cover the full process in our companion post, Pointing Your Domain to ULTRV. It takes about five minutes and ULTRV handles the SSL certificate automatically.

What happens to your images

This is worth emphasizing because it's a common worry. When ULTRV imports your WordPress content, it doesn't just link to your images on the old server. It downloads every image and stores it on ULTRV's infrastructure.

That means:

Your images won't break when you eventually shut down WordPress

You're not dependent on your old hosting provider keeping files around

Image URLs in your posts are automatically rewritten to point to the new copies

Featured images, inline images, and any media embedded in your post content — all of it comes over.

What doesn't transfer

To be transparent, here's what the import doesn't bring over:

Comments — ULTRV doesn't have a comment system by design. If you need your old comments preserved, export them separately from WordPress before decommissioning.

Plugin-specific content — Shortcodes from plugins like WooCommerce, Elementor, or Yoast won't render in ULTRV. The raw shortcode text will appear in your content for you to clean up.

Custom post types — Only standard posts and pages are imported.

User accounts — If you had multiple authors, content comes in under your ULTRV account.

None of this is lost — it's all still in your WordPress export file. ULTRV just focuses on the core content: your writing and your images.

A clean break, on your schedule

The whole point of this process is that you're in control. Export from WordPress whenever you want. Import into ULTRV at your own pace. Review your content without a deadline. And when everything looks right, point your domain over and you're done.

No migration service to hire. No database to wrangle. No weekend spent debugging PHP. Just your writing, moved to a simpler home.

If you've been thinking about leaving WordPress but kept putting it off because it felt like too much work — it's not. Start with the export. The rest follows naturally.