For business with hundreds of WordPress websites, managing each one independently is a tedious task.

That’s where WordPress Multisite can make a difference.

At Bobcares, we receive many requests  to setup WordPress Multisite as a part of our Outsourced Tech Support for web hosting providers.

Today, let’s discuss what’s WordPress Multisite, where we can use it and how we can create it.

What is WordPress Multisite?

In short, WordPress Multisite allows you to manage multiple WordPress websites on a single WordPress installation.

Unlike normal wordpress websites, WordPress Multisite works on a single database and a pool of themes ad plugins. This makes website management, plugin and theme updates easier.

Based on our experience, let’s see some practical cases where we propose WordPress Multisite as an effective solution.

Who should use WordPress Multisite?

1. A developer or Web-agency that manages hundreds of websites for a client.
2. Online magazines or newspapers with multiple sections run by different teams like editorial, marketing, etc.
3. Blogging company with thousands of  blogs managed by different teams.
4. Banking sites with sub-sites for each branch.

Who should not use WordPress Multisite?

1. Developer who manages a few websites for a client(say 50 or less).
2. The websites that you develop for a client are of different brands and are completely unrelated.
3. Websites with sensitive information(eg: medical records) as WordPress Multisite share a single database.

How to setup WordPress Multisite?

Let’s assume we have a  domain “example.com”.

I need to enable Multisite feature on this domain.

Before we begin, let’s see what are the prerequisites to setup a WordPress Multisite.

Prerequisites

1. Install WordPress on this domain – Install latest version of WordPress in the document root of the domain.
2. Backup your existing WordPress site – Take a backup of your website files and database of your existing WordPress site. If something wrong happens, we can revert it
3. Verify Pretty Permalinks works fine – Pretty Permalinks are SEO friendly URLs.  For that, make sure that Apache module “mod_rewrite” and FollowSymLinks are enabled for your domain.
4. Choose a Domain Structure – You can add new sites  either as subdomains or subdirectories. We recommend to use sub-domains. Google and other search engines consider subdomains as entirely new site. Therefore, they maintain their own SEO rankings.
5.  Deactivate all active plugins – Deactivate all your active plugins from WordPress dashboard. WordPress   recommends this as a safety measure to avoid conflicts.
6. Allow Multisite – To enable Multisite, you need to add the following code in the wp-config.php file before the line /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.*/

/* Multisite */
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Setup WordPress Multisite Network

Let’s move on to the next step. Now, you need to setup the Network.

Follow the below steps for this.

a ) Navigate to Administration > Tools > Network Setup to complete the network configuration.

Fill in the following fields and click install.

Address of sites in your Network - Select domain structure(Sub-domains or Sub-directories).
Network title - Your network name.
Admin Email address - Network admin/Super admin email address.

b) WordPress will show you some code that you need to add in your wp-config.php and .htaccess files respectively.

c) You are done!! Re-login to WordPress admin area.

Manage WordPress Multisite network?

Once you login to your WordPress dashboard as Super user, you can see that the interface has changed a  bit.

A new module “My Sites” will appear at the WordPress toolbar.

You can add new sites, plugins and themes. Enable them for each site owners via My Sites > Network admin.

Conclusion

WordPress Multisite is used for easily managing multiple websites from your WordPress dashboard. Today, we have discussed about WordPress Multisite, where can we use this, and how can we create it. Need assistance in assessing your requirements and setting up WordPress Multisite? click here to get in touch with our WordPress Experts.