Importing Movable Type or TypePad blog posts

You can use the blog importer to import an .xml file of Movable Type or TypePad blog posts to your Squarespace 5 site. You can import:

  • Blog posts
  • Comments
  • Categories and tags
  • URLs can be automatically redirected to prevent visitors from seeing a "page not found" message when visiting your older entries

Watch a video

Before you begin

  • If you're using a custom domain for your original blog, don't connect the domain to your Squarespace 5 site until your content has imported.
  • Markdown formatting isn't supported. If your posts include Markdown, remove the code before importing.
  • If you have multiple authors in your blog and want to carry these over, ensure your billing plan supports member accounts. Before importing your posts, create an account for each author. The author names on your original blog should match the display names in Member Accounts.

Step 1 - Export the .xml file

Export your blog posts as an .xml file:

  • Moveable Type - Log into your Movable Type account and click System Overview. Click the Tools drop-down menu and choose Export. Then click Export and save the file to your computer. For more help, visit Movable Type's documentation.
  • TypePad - Log into your TypePad account and click Settings, then Import/Export.
    Scroll down to the Export section and click Export to save the file to your computer.
    For more help, visit TypePad's documentation.

Step 2 - Open the blog importer

Next, open the blog importer:

  1. Log into your Squarespace 5 site.
  2. In the Website Management bar, click Blog Importer under Data & Media.
  3. Click Import Via An Export File.
  4. Ensure Movable Type or TypePad is selected in the Blog Platform drop-down menu.
  5. In the Blog URL field, enter the URL that visitors use to visit that blog. This may be a custom domain URL (eg, yourcoolblog.com), or a subdomain (eg, yourcoolblog.movabletype.com).
  6. Click Continue

import-MT.png

Step 3 - Choose whether to redirect your old URLs

In the next screen, you'll be given the option to Gather Additional Information. If you choose this:

  • Your old blog post URLs will automatically redirect to your new blog posts. This ensures search engines and your visitors don't see broken links. 
  • For Moveable Type, your media assets will be transferred to Amazon S3 storage.

To skip this step, click I Do Not Want To Redirect My Old URLs

To enable automatic URL redirection:

  1. Enter your username and password. For Movable Type, enter your web services password.
  2. Click Get Redirect Information.
Note: Your web services password is different from your normal Movable Type password. To see the password, go to the Preferences section of your Movable Type profile and click Reveal.

url-redirect.png

  1. If you have more than one blog, select the one you want to import.

Step 4 - Upload the file

  1. Click File to upload the .xml file from your computer, then click Upload File. The file name appears in the Export File field.
  2. Click Import Entries.

import-xml-file.png

Next steps

Once you import the .xml file, a status bar shows your import's progress. The import time depends on the number of entries you're importing.

When the import finishes, click Finish in the Data Import Complete message to complete the import.

To see your imported Blog Page, open the Website Management bar and click Architecture under Structure. Your imported blog page appears as a disabled Journal Page. It will be named Imported, followed by the date.

  • To visit the page, click it.
  • To make the page live on your site, hover over the name and click Enable.
  • Click Configure to change the blog's name or URL slug.

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Importing Movable Type or TypePad blog posts