How to Create a Multisite on WordPress to Manage Multiple Sites

this week we’re taking you on a journey
to a whole new level of web creation and
moving beyond a standard website and on
to creating a wordpress multi-site
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creating and managing our first
multi-site is one of those great
milestones along the career path of web
creators it’s a rite of passage that
takes us on our very first steps into
the big leagues and as such many
professional and experienced web
creators find the whole idea of multi
sites a bit too intimidating and that is
why this week we’re showing you a simple
efficient way of achieving this goal now
if you’re a Monday masterclass follower
then you know that we always leave lots
of links in the show notes below two
related videos in-depth articles
software and websites that we mention
and recommend if this is your first
Monday masterclass welcome and be sure
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more videos that we produce especially
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that could help you with what you’re
hoping to create online and as always if
you have any questions thoughts or ideas
please write them in the comments below
now let’s see how we can convert a
standard website into a WordPress
multi-site
[Music]
basically in creating a multi-site we
keep our main domain or root side but
enable other fully fledged sites to
branch from it and perform independently
now typically this speeds up our site’s
performance on the whole but more to the
point it allows us to compartmentalize
the content media and the site’s
activity and this also helps us to make
our site management process more
efficient now to read a final reclassify
a web site to a multi-site will first
need an established wordpress website
and it can be any kind of site it could
be a site that’s been online for over a
decade or perhaps just a few months but
if you’re setting up a brand new site
then this isn’t for you I’m afraid
during your installation process of
WordPress whether you’re using a
dedicated hosting service or installing
it manually you will be asked if your
site is going to be a standard or
multi-site today you see we’re focusing
on changing existing sites now as we’ll
be redefining our web site in the
backend we’ll need an FTP or SFTP
software this is software designed to
manage edit and transfer files to and
from our server we’ll be using visual
studio code but you can also use
FileZilla most web creators use these
because they are cross-platform they can
be used on Mac Windows etc and they are
free now the last thing that we will
need is multi-site enabling code the
definitions of a site or multi-site are
part of WordPress but it’s nothing that
we can’t achieve without a simple
process of copy pasting the code that we
need now it’s a prove our point let’s
get started with step number one backup
and prep our wordpress website most
hosting services allow you to backup
your site data manually it’s a much
quicker process and it’s free which is
important to many of us but the main
thing is that you have an up-to-date
backup because it’s always better saved
than sorry with the backup completed
we’ll turn off or deactivate all of our
plugins and this is because active
plugins could create problems when we
redefine the site some plugins may not
even work on multi sites but luckily
Elementor is one of those plugins that
works wonderfully on multi sites and
we’ll be showing you just how to
reactivate it on our multi site with our
website prepared let’s move on to step
number two redefining our standard site
as a multi site using the FTP software
will log in to access our WordPress
folders and files on our server some
people prefer to edit these files on
their computer others prefer to edit
them on the server whatever you’re more
comfortable with is absolutely fine now
we’ll go to the file manager and we’ll
be editing information in this file here
the WP config dot PHP file but first
what we’ll do is we’ll create a backup
by making a copy of this file with that
done we’ll select the WP config file and
click on edit to access it then we’ll
scroll down so we find this line here
that’s all stop editing happy blogging
and we’ll just leave this here for a
moment if you’re doing this together
with us and you have the master class
video playing in a separate tab then you
should go to the show notes below where
you’ll find this code snippet and we’ll
copy this line or snippet of code and
we’ll paste it here immediately before
the stop editing happy blogging line
that we located earlier we’ll just make
sure that we leave a space between these
lines and we’ll save our changes now
we’ll return to our WordPress dashboard
if like me you’ve kept it open will
refresh it and we’ll scroll down our
menu and we’ll notice that in the tools
tab we now have a network setup option
in the network setup you’ll notice that
we can add multiple sites as either
subdomains or as subdirectories now
subdomains allow us to break down our
website or root domain into smaller
sites each with content that is related
to but not the same as the content on
the main site sub directories work a bit
like categories in that they allow us to
establish a hierarchy of all the
directories that branch out of the root
domain in practice this affects the way
that the domain name will appear for
each sub-site and each has pros and cons
regarding
see oh now if you’re not certain which
of these is right for you then you can
join me and many of my colleagues and
simply choose to use the subdomains
option and click on install now what
happens next is the WordPress generates
a code snippet that will enable our
multi-site to exist as subdomains not
only that it gives us clear instructions
on where to place it and we’ll copy this
code here and return to our wordpress
file manager to the wp-config.php file
and to the same place that we were
before and we’ll create a space above
the happy blogging line and paste the
code we just copied making sure again
that we keep a space above and below
this new code and save our changes now
we’ll go back to our wordpress dashboard
and select the second code snippet that
was prepared for us we’ll copy it and as
you can see in the instructions here
we’ll need to go back to our file
manager and paste this code into a file
labeled dot htaccess this is usually a
hidden file so if you can’t see it among
your WordPress files go to the settings
and select the show hidden files option
then click Save with the dot htaccess
file located and selected will click on
edit to access it will select everything
inside this if module or the code
between these two bracketed lines and
we’ll paste over this with the code that
we copied from the WordPress dashboard
and of course we’ll save our changes
returning to the wordpress dashboard
will refresh our browser tab we may have
to log in again for that to happen but
doing so will notice that some important
changes have been made to our dashboard
first of all we have the network admin
over here and to the left of that we
have my sites where we’ll find access to
our main domain as well as all of our
sub sites that will be listed here we
now also have a separate option in the
Updates tab for updates across all the
sites of the network and below that
another tab where we can manage add and
edit our sub sites even if we go to our
themes when we activate a theme from now
on we have the network enabled
to activate this theme across all of the
sites on our network and of course the
same goes for plugins and add-ons now as
we explained earlier not all add-ons and
plugins work with multi sites but if
you’re not sure consult the plug-in
specs on the creators page or better yet
ask colleagues and elemental community
members on reddit or in the Facebook
groups when we install or reactivate
Elementor we now have this network
activate option to activate it across
all of the sub sites on our network so
we’ll do just that and move on to step
number three setting up our subdomains
to do that we’ll go to the settings tab
where we’ll find new options for network
settings and set up this of course is
the name of our site now the rest of
these options are pretty
self-explanatory so we won’t waste your
time by going over them here I would
however like to point out this box here
where we can enter words or values that
we don’t want to appear in sub-site
names to avoid confusion or confliction
x’ and we’ll save our changes and with
our settings altered we’ll go back up
the menu to the sites tab and select add
new we’ll just give our new site a
simple URL name then we can be a bit
more elaborate with the actual title of
the site we can add the site admins
email but we’ll just leave it as it is
for now and click Add site now we can
access our new site here in the my sites
tab on the top menu bar and notice that
we now have all the basic WordPress
options to our sub site as we would any
other side through the sub site
dashboard we can create design build
post content everything the same way
that we’re used to on a standard
WordPress website for example if we go
to this sub sites dashboard we can add a
theme and certain plugins to be used
only on this site as opposed to having
them activated across all the sites in
the network like we saw earlier we
should also be clear that if you have
anything that needs an activation
license because those licenses are
regulated according to URLs you will
most likely have to acquire separate
licenses for each sub-site
however as professional web creators the
chances are that you’re on an elemental
expert planner so you’ll have no
shortage of licenses to use for your new
sub sites I would like to add just one
more cool thing once we start adding
sites on our network the dashboard
allows us to bounce back and forth very
easily but I recommend keeping an eye on
the URL so that you’re always aware of
which side you are on especially when
you’re editing this week we took one
small and simple step in learning how to
move from standard WordPress websites to
creating and managing multi sites and as
you know in doing so this spring boards
us on a giant link to a whole new level
of web creating now if you have any tips
or advice that could help other users
create set up and manage their own multi
sites please add them in the comments
below and if you have any criticisms we
are equally interested in your thoughts
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excel at their craft thanks for watching