What is WordPress Multisite?

Let’s begin by defining WordPress Multisite. After installing WordPress once and for all, WordPress Multisite allows you to control numerous websites and blogs. For example, with the same WordPress account credentials, you can instantly create a new website alongside your existing one. In addition, the Multisite platform offers advanced settings and features for customizing all your websites or blogs.

Why Should You Use WordPress Multisite?

Here are listed a few advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress Multisite.

Advantages of multisite

  • It shares one installation of the core code.
  • Its joint user base is shared across the network; one login profile grants access to all sites on the web.
  • The super admin controls the plugins and themes shared across the network for the other sites to use. In addition, the super admin can update those themes and plugins for all sites at once from the master dashboard.

Disadvantages of Multisite

  • Migrations are exceedingly complex as each site shares one database. As a result, migrating one site off your network takes a lot of work.
  • You cannot genuinely separate users; each will still have access to the entire network. You cannot create independent system users for SFTP uploads.
  • A plugin cannot be installed on only a single site in the network. Once the network administrator installs the plugin, it will be available for all sites on the network. If you delete a plugin, any site using that plugin will be affected. Some plugins do not work with Multisite.

WordPress Multisite subdomain cPanel

Step 1:

Access cPanel (yourwebsite.com/cpanel). Add a subdomain with an Asterix by clicking on subdomains.

Step 2:

Paste the following code into your wp-config.php file to enable the multisite feature in your WordPress installation.

				
					define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

Step 3:

You can now access your WordPress dashboard by logging in to your website’s admin area and clicking Tools > Network (yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/network.php). You will be taught how to set up your new multisite blog.

Step 4:

In the “wp-content” directory, create a directory called “blogs. dir”. Here is an example of what it should look like: /public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir
To allow the server to write to that directory, CHMOD writes permissions must be set to 755. The CHMOD settings for a directory can be checked or changed with an FTP client by right-clicking on the directory and checking whether the permissions number is 755; if not, change it and click OK.

Step 5:

To complete the installation process, you must make additional changes to the wp-config.php file. This is what it should look like:

				
					define( 'MULTISITE', true );
define( 'SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', true );
$base = '/';
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'yourwebsite.com' );
define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/');
define( 'SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
define( 'BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );

Step 6:

You will be instructed to add some code to your .htaccess file in the installation instructions. The format should be as follows:

				
					RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]

# uploaded files
RewriteRule ^files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

A .htaccess file contains rules that control your website at the directory level if you’re unfamiliar with it. In Notepad, open the .htaccess file as an administrator, click open, and then search for it.

Step 7:

You are all done. Start adding some sites to your installation.

WordPress Multisite subdomain or subdirectory

Let’s first understand what subdomains and subdirectories are.

Sub Domain

Subdomains are digital addresses within domains—a domain ramification. A valid domain can have as many subdomains as you like.
In addition to the main domain, the subdomain contains another name or expression.

Sub Directory

Subdirectories are folders or directories created under your main website.
Similar to how you organize folders on your computer, you can have subdirectories. Similarly, mydomain.com/articles/domain can have multiple levels.

Merits of having Subdomains:

  • A subdomain is particularly useful if you wish to have two sites, one staging and one live, and don’t want Google to rank the staging site. Then, when you are all done with the Staging site, you can push it to the live site.
  • A subdomain is the best option for selling your products in different countries with different languages.
  • You can segment your market in these subdomains if your market is enormous. You can also use subdomains’ help to target a specific market, such as Food items, Groceries, Reading items, etc.

Merits of having Subdirectories:

  • The first and foremost benefit of the subdirectory is its part of the main website itself. So your focus stays on one leading site, and you can work hard to optimize that very well. This way, you can easily rank your website on Google.
  • Adding more content to the same website may make Google crawl more often than other subdomains. And adding content to it to make it fresh every time.
  • You can also segment your data more efficiently on the same website instead of shifting to different subdomains repeatedly.

Final Thoughts:

With WordPress Multisite, you can manage multiple WordPress websites from the same dashboard. While it may only be effective for some niches of websites, it can be a highly influential web admin tool for most.

You can build as multiple subdomains as you need once you enable the multisite feature. Thank you for reading this WordPress tutorial on creating subdomains. For more WordPress professional tutorials, follow V2 Web Solutions.