Managing multiple websites for a single business can be complicated. This guide serves as an introduction to WordPress Multisite, helping businesses understand whether the feature is right for them and how to begin thinking about implementation.
Some businesses and organisations need more than a single website. But when they do, organisation and management can quickly become convoluted.
Enter WordPress Multisite, a feature specifically developed to help organisations with multiple websites more easily create, manage, and optimise their online presence.
That sounds complex. At its core though, Multisite is actually a simplification tool.
Keep reading for an introduction of the concept, the reasons why the feature can be great, and some scenarios in which it might not be the best idea.
At its core, WordPress Multisite allows you to create a network of linked websites from a single WordPress installation. It’s a feature within WordPress, allowing for centralised control across websites and domains.
The network of websites within an instance of Multisite share a single file system, further increasing that centralised control discussed above. Beyond that, WordPress offers two core options for organisations looking to leverage the feature:
If you or your organisation is managing multiple websites, Multisite offers a few central benefits that can make it a great fit for potential migration:
The ability to create multiple websites within a single database and server offers the potential for immense marketing and communication flexibility.
You’re able to build more custom solutions for different audience segments, as Bakels Group did when launching its 24 websites for operations in the same number of countries.
Staying with the above example, Bakels Group (or any other organisation requiring multiple websites) did not have to launch all of its instances in a single environment.
That decision, though, enables businesses in all industries to simplify the ways in which they manage their online presence.
Within Multisite, the management of all websites within the same network occurs on a single dashboard. That dashboard will require some adjustments for users familiar with a single-site WordPress install, but is intuitive and quickly helps you adjust to managing multiple websites.
The mention of the single dashboard above already hints at it: Multisite works because the admin structure is centralised. Because it unifies the various websites needing to be managed, it helps site admins easily monitor, back up, and change settings of these sites in a comprehensive and unified fashion.
At the same time, not all admins will be able to access or adjust the same settings. Website owners can set up both global and site-specific administrator roles within their teams, ensuring that only those with the right permissions can make changes that ultimately affect sites going far beyond their jurisdiction or responsibilities.
Combine all the above, and you discover a feature within WordPress that can lead to potentially significant time savings on the administrative level. While retaining site-specific flexibility, global settings you can change and update include:
Especially when the network of sites exceeds 20, as it did in the Bakels Group example above, these ‘super admin’ features can provide massive time savings.
But even if you are only looking to manage four individual sites, as specialist retailer Morleys encountered in a recent case study, this centralisation can save time and help you focus on other aspects within your business.
All the above benefits may lead to the belief that WordPress Multisite is always beneficial when managing multiple websites. In reality, while that often is the case, there are exceptions that are important to discuss as well.
Put differently, certain scenarios turn the centralisation advantage discussed throughout this guide into a negative. Within a Multisite network, every website shares the same resources and database.
That, in turn, means that admins cannot easily back up or migrate individual sites within the network. Global decisions like the ones discussed above tend to remain at the global level.
That matters little if a single business is looking for a way to manage multiple websites or domains under its umbrella. But if the websites are designed for different purposes and businesses altogether, it can become problematic.
For instance, a global business looking to establish different websites for its different target countries will not run into issues.
At the same time, we would not use Multisite to run websites for the various clients we work with, which are disconnected from each other and should not share either data or decision-making trees.
Finally, not all web hosting providers are set up to sufficiently support a WordPress Multisite setup. Working with a partner, or checking with the provider first, is crucial to the implementation and migration success should you decide to take this direction.
In short, as long as the situation is right for it, Multisite is a great feature for businesses looking to more easily and efficiently manage multiple domains or subdomains on a single server. The setup, though, can be more complex.
A number of online guides seek to help businesses take the necessary steps. Many of them are technical and require at least some coding. The alternative: work with a partner who can help you build your Multisite instance, getting it to a point where you can take over and manage it yourself.
Impact Media has helped multiple clients with multiple websites develop WordPress Multisite instances. We can help you start from scratch, or migrate your existing suite of websites into a Multisite environment.
We develop using WordPress multisite for a number of our clients who have multiple sites to manage. We can help people migrate their existing suite of websites over to a multisite environment. Schedule a free discovery call with us to learn more.
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