Create a multisite with WordPress

Do you need to communicate online and create a medium to present your products and services? WordPress is the most popular CMS on the web, used by millions of people on the planet and beyond its notoriety, it is a powerful tool. It is open-source software and anyone can create plugins, themes and share them within the WordPress community.

It's not a simple blogging platform, although that is the core functionality; you can create any type of Internet site: for a company, an association, a shop, for making appointments or establishing contacts… etc.

In short, it is a simple, customizable and scalable tool, optimal for SEO and responsive design.

WordPress is the ideal tool, you will understand. And among the features, it is possible to create more than a simple website: a multisite.

What is a multisite?

By definition, a multisite is made up of several sites, the management of which is centralized on the same WordPress platform. It is an Internet site, which “hides” in fact several!

Via a single administration interface, you can therefore manage several sites. However, each site retains its autonomy.

A file is responsible for this specificity: wp-config.php

The particularities of a multisite with WordPress

• A main administrator allows you to manage sites, themes and plugins, etc. He has all the "powers"! Its creation is automatic.
• Each subsite does not have its own directory on the server; it is a shared server for the whole.
• On the other hand, each site has its subfolder in the wp-upload folder.

Why create a WordPress multisite?

Before embarking on such a project, what is the goal? Let's list together some relevant examples that justify the creation of a multisite.

• You are a publishing brand and you manage several magazines
• You are a real estate group and many real estate agencies
• A network of schools, located throughout France and whose news is specific to each
• In general, a local entity attached to a national organization
• A company present in several countries, which wants a version of its site for each country where it is present
• Etc.

How to create a multisite on WordPress?

• First of all, make sure you have WordPress installed.
• Allow the multisite option: to do this, edit the wp-config.php file.
• Before the first command line (which starts with "require" or "include", add this: define ('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);
• Refresh your browser. The creation of the network is then done. You can see it by hovering your mouse in the menu to the right over the "tool" option.
• Install the network. To do this, first choose between a subdomain or a subfolder. How to choose ? In the first case, your site will have an url of the type https://monsite.site1.fr. In the second case, your url will look like https://monsite.fr/site1.
• Once your choice is made, comes the step of installing the multisite network.
• Start the installation. You will then find instructions to apply for the configuration, in the wp-config.php and .htaccess files.
• Once the changes have been applied, log in (the option is offered at the bottom of your screen).

You are then identified as the administrator of the site network. You then have an option at the top left to access the administration interface of your site and add sites as you wish!

Creation of a website

If you have chosen the option with subfolders, the operation is simple and you can create a site with new associated users if necessary. Indeed, each sub-site can have its own administrator. On your side, you can choose a theme for the site and configure various settings.

If you have chosen the option with subdomains, some settings are necessary with your web host. First you need to enable multi-domain. It is a mandatory option.

In general, hosting providers (like OVH) authorize the operation of the multi-domain in shared.

On the administration interface, to create a new site, click on “  My sites> Network admin> Sites . »Then« Add ».

You will then be asked for some information: site address, site name, language and administrator's e-mail address