Table of Content
- What is Multisite?
- Why Multisite?
- How to Enable a WordPress Multisite Network?
- How to Setup Multisite Using Subdomains?
- WordPress Multisite Development Services at WPWeb Infotech
- Benefits of WordPress Multisite Network
- Brands Using WordPress Multisite Networks
- FAQs on WordPress Multisite Development
- Conclusion
Let’s say you are a business owner working in multiple industrial domains. In that case, you’ll most likely need multiple websites. Then, do you need to install WordPress multiple times? No, you don’t. In this case, expert WordPress developers recommend you go for WordPress multisite development.
That way, you can manage multiple websites through a single WordPress dashboard. It will make things much more manageable. Plus, you can better focus on stuff like content creation and day-to-day business operations. It would be better than issues with the maintenance of multiple websites.
But people have so many questions when it comes to multisite. So we have developed this blog to attempt and explain WordPress multisite development. Plus, you’ll learn why it’s used, its benefits, the process of creating it, and the brands that use this service.
So without further ado, let’s start with what multisite is
What is Multisite?
WordPress Multisite is a feature of the WordPress content management system. It allows users to create and manage multiple websites from a single installation. With Multisite, a single WordPress installation serves as a n/w that can host numerous independent websites. Each of them will have their own domain or subdomain.
In a Multisite setup, a network administrator has the ability to create new sites within the network. You can also assign user roles and permissions for each site and manage themes and plugins that can be used across all sites or specific ones. Each individual site within the network can have its own unique settings, content, and design while sharing the core WordPress files and database.
Multisite is particularly useful for organizations, businesses, or individuals who want to manage multiple websites under a unified administration system. It simplifies the process of creating and maintaining multiple sites. That allows for centralized updates and management. It provides a consistent user experience across all the sites in the network.
Overall, WordPress Multisite offers a convenient solution for efficiently managing and scaling multiple websites using a single WordPress installation.
Why Multisite?
Now why might a company or individual require multisite development? Well, that’s what we are going to attempt and answer. Here are a few circumstances when multisite may be of help:
- Potential for Growth. There’s a chance your website has a variety of sections and categories. And all of these categories have their own subcategories. Then the website’s taxonomy may become a little too complicated. In that case, you may create multiple websites under the same WordPress installation. So you and your team will be able to handle the different sections more efficiently.
- Market Exploration. Often, after capturing a market (by region or domain), a company may think to explore newer markets for business scalability. In that case, separate websites will help tackle different geographies.
- Business Bifurcation. Larger companies work in several domains, and every domain requires its dedicated website to function in the best way possible. For these companies, multisite development can help create different websites for different branches and domains.
- Blogging Network. If you are someone who regularly writes and publishes blogs about topics of different genres, multisite development would be of help. You can dedicate separate subsites for blogging about different topics and genres, like tech, automobiles, politics, and more.
- Educational Institutions. Multisite can benefit schools, colleges, or universities that require individual websites for different departments and campuses. It simplifies website management and ensures consistent branding while allowing each entity to have its own online presence.
There are many other use cases where multisite can prove to be quite beneficial for the business or company. But in general, a WordPress development company will recommend going for the multisite option if your website becomes too big, complex, and diverse to scale the business.
How to Enable a WordPress Multisite Network?
Now that you know why and how your business or organization may benefit from WordPress multisite let’s see how you can enable it. But first, you will need to shortlist the best WordPress hosting provider and install this wonderful CMS.
Then, we can start the process of enabling the WordPress multisite network:
Step 1: After completing your WordPress installation, connect to your website through an FTP client. (An FTP client helps connect your computer to the hosting account so you can upload files to your WordPress website.)
Step 2: Then, in the WordPress file and directory structure, locate the wp-config.php file and edit it through the cPanel on your website host. (cPanel is a third-party app used to simplify website and server management. Most WordPress hosting providers offer access to cPanel by default.)
Step 3: While editing the wp-config.php file, add this code just above the line about final goodbyes.
Step 4: Now, save the wp-config.php file and log off the cPanel.
Step 5: Next, log into your WordPress website. Then click on Tools and open Network Setup to configure the multisite network.
Step 6: You’ll see a setup screen where you can choose whether to keep the network sites on their subdirectory or subdomain.
Example of subdirectory: websitexyz.com/page1 & websitexyz.com/page2
Example of a subdomain: page1.websitexyz.com & page2.websitexyz.com
Make sure you choose this setting carefully, as you won’t be able to change your decision later.
Step 7: If you have chosen subdomains, the next step would be to do domain mapping by changing the DNS settings. We’ll discuss this setting in the next section.
Step 8: Thereafter, again connect to your website through the FTP client. Then, open the WordPress file directory, edit the wp-config.php and .htaccess files, and add the code visible on the screen.
Step 9: Save the two files.
And that’s it. The next time you log into your website, you’ll see the WordPress Multisite Network on the admin bar.
Next, we’ll catch up on the multisite setup using subdomains.
How to Setup Multisite Using Subdomains?
You have two choices for where you want to keep the network sites: subdirectory and subdomain. As we mentioned earlier, if you go for subdomains, you will need to configure the settings for domain mapping.
In these settings, you will have to put an asterisk as the subdomain name. For instance, if your WordPress installation is websitexyz.com, the subdomain will be *.websitexyz.com.
Let’s see how you will do that.
Step 1: First off, login to your hosting account and go to cPanel.
Step 2: Locate the Domains section and click on Subdomains.
Step 3: Then, in the field under “Create a Subdomain,” enter the asterisk (*). Then, choose your main domain or primary WordPress installation from the drop-down menu near it.
After entering the subdomain and selecting the main domain, wait for a bit as the system detects the document root. It will be displayed in the field below.
Step 4: Now, click on the Create button, and the system will add the new wildcard subdomain.
That concludes the process of creating the WordPress multisite network and setting it up using subdomains.
Although quite simple, this process may seem a little complicated to beginners. If you are one of them, get in touch with a web development company. Their experts have the skills and experience to help create a multisite network for your business enterprise.
As for WPWeb Infotech, you’ll see our WordPress Multisite services in the next section.
WordPress Multisite Development Services at WPWeb Infotech
Our experts have years of experience with WordPress. Plus, they have more than the necessary skills to create an outstanding multisite network. Here are our multisite services in our web development domain.
WordPress Multisite Strategizing
Our WordPress experts can provide you with the best possible strategy for your multisite network. So it stands out amongst the competitors. Our WordPress multisite strategies include network structure planning, scalability, user management, themes & plugins, backup and security, maintenance, and more.
Multisite Network Design
Through our extensive web design services, you can expect the best possible multisite network design just for your business enterprise. When designing a multisite network, our experts consider every requirement presented by the clients to ensure a smooth and efficient web environment.
WordPress Multisite Development
We analyze every little requirement put forth by the client. Then we create a robust WordPress multisite network with all the latest features and functionalities. When it comes to creating a WordPress multisite network, we consider network setup and architecture, customizations, user management, site creation, and management, and of course, client requirements.
WordPress Multisite Migration
Whether you want to migrate a site’s network or a standalone website into a multisite network, our WordPress migration services would be of help. Our multisite migration process starts with backing up your existing website and setting up a hosting environment. Then, we copy the files and export the database into a new one. After that, we update the wp-config.php file and DNS settings.
Last but not least, test the migration and update plugins and themes to reinvigorate your WordPress multisite network.
Theme & Plugin integration
We can integrate WordPress themes and plugins across the entire network, allowing sites within the network to share the resources. The steps to that involve network activation, choosing the themes & plugins, configuring the settings, and integrating them into the network.
By integrating themes and plugins across your WordPress Multisite network, you can efficiently manage and share resources, ensuring consistent design and functionality across multiple sites.
Multisite Network Management
Our WordPress experts can help manage the network as a whole. That includes adding and removing sites, managing user roles and permissions, and more.
These WordPress development services can help create a fantastic WordPress multisite network for your company. So get in touch with us for multisite development. That will have a bunch of benefits that we will discuss in the next section.
Benefits of WordPress Multisite Network
In today’s digital landscape, although crucial, managing multiple websites efficiently for businesses and individuals can be quite painstaking. That’s where WordPress Multisite Network comes in. With its centralized administration, cost savings, and content-sharing capabilities, along with scalability, Multisite can be a streamlined solution for business growth.
Let’s delve into some of the key benefits of WordPress Multisite Network and how it can revolutionize your website management:
- Centralized Management. Multisite lets you manage all your websites from a single, centralized dashboard. That allows for streamlined administration and consistent updates. Plus, you can efficiently manage the themes, plugins, and user roles across multiple sites.
- Cost and Time Efficiency. Managing multiple websites individually can be quite time-consuming and costly. Multisite, on the other hand, reduces the overhead by using a single installation and sharing resources. Plus, there is a unified set of plugins and themes, translating into effective cost and time savings.
- Easy Site Creation. With multisite, you can simplify the process of creating new sites within the same network. A network administrator can quickly set up new sites with their own domain or subdomain. Then they can assign users and configure site-specific settings.
- Cross-Site Content Sharing. Multisite enables content sharing between websites within the network. You can choose to share posts, pages, media files, and even user accounts across multiple sites. That ensures consistency and facilitates collaboration.
- Scalability and Flexibility. As your web presence expands, Multisite offers scalability by accommodating an unlimited number of sites within the network. You can easily add or remove sites as needed. That makes it a flexible solution for growing orgs or individuals to manage multiple projects.
- Consistent User Experience. Through a multisite network, you can maintain a consistent user experience across all sites (within that network). Since they will all use the same core files, themes, and plugins, visitors will have a familiar interface and navigation on every site.
- Simplified Updates and Security. A multisite development lets you update the core WordPress, themes, and plugins of all sites centrally. That ensures all sites within the network stay up to date. It reduces the risk of vulnerabilities and simplifies the maintenance process.
- Efficient Resource Allocation. Multisite optimizes resource allocation by sharing server resources across multiple sites. That, compared to managing separate installations, improves the performance and server utilization. It reduces the hosting costs for each site.
These are just a few of the key benefits that justify the major corporations around the world using WordPress multisite networks. They can efficiently manage and scale multiple websites within a unified administration system.
We’ll take a look at some of these brands in the next section.
Brands Using WordPress Multisite Networks
Several major MNCs and organizations around the world opt for WordPress multisite development. It eases the site management and provides a variety of other benefits.
So let’s check out some of these leading brands.
Harvard Blogs
Harvard University is one of the best universities in the world. They run loads of blogs on different subjects, all with separate email addresses, like harvard.edu, hbs.edu, and radcliffe.edu. These domains are run on a WordPress multisite network. So that anyone looking to create a blog on a particular subject on the Harvard blogging site can do so for free.
Reuters Blog
As a news agency established in 1851, Reuters covers a variety of topics like politics, sports, entertainment, market, world affairs, tech, and so on. Every one of these topics has its own subdomain under the WordPress multisite network.
Cheapflights
Cheapflights is one of the biggest platforms for booking flight tickets and hotel and vacation packages. But this site also has a Travel Tips section, filled with all the latest tips and news on everything travel, that is powered by the WordPress multisite installation.
BBC America
BBC is one of the biggest broadcasters around the world, and its American outlet airs some of the biggest, most popular movies and TV shows. But although not common knowledge, every show on the website has its own site, thanks to a multisite installation. All of these mini-sites are run on child themes through a single mainframe.
Courvoisier
Who hasn’t heard of the cognac brand Courvoisier? They sell their products all around the world. So to improve customer service and support, they went for multisite installation. Every one of these sub-sites is regional and features different landing pages and dynamic menus.
So if you are someone who is looking to improve the user experience by offering separate websites for different topics, domains, and regions, a WordPress multisite installation might be of help.
It’s understandable if you still have doubts regarding this subject matter. So we have compiled a few FAQs on WordPress multisite development in the next section.
FAQs Related to WordPress Multisite Development
Conclusion
For so many businesses, there comes a time when their website becomes too diverse to scale properly. In that case, WordPress multisite development would be the best way forward. It lets you host numerous independent websites, each with its own domain or subdomain from a single WordPress installation. So you can have different sites for different domains, regions, topics, and more.
Above, we have explained the benefits of WordPress multisite development, like cost-saving and efficient site management. Plus, you can share posts, pages, and media files, along with themes and plugins. It ensures your avid visitors and users a consistent experience. That’s why organizations like Harvard, Reuters, Cheapflights, Courvoisier, BBC America, and so many others use WordPress multisite installation. If you want to join this elite group, get in touch with our website development experts today!
