How to install a multisite network on WordPress

A multisite network is the best way to expand your reach on WordPress. It’s ideal for businesses, blogs and anyone who needs a simple and easy way to manage multiple websites; but with the ability to do so under one dashboard. This article will detail how you can set up your own multisite network today.

The requirements to install a multisite network:

Since a multisite network is different websites operating on the same resources and space, it’s important that you have good hosting installed. For a multisite network, we recommend Dedicated Hosting, VPS Hosting, or even Web Hosting Plus. This means your website can use dedicated resources to allow for high traffic whilst maintaining optimal site speed.

Whilst it may go without saying, you must already have WordPress installed on a website. It is a good idea to have a backup of your website before you continue, just in case something goes wrong.

Select your preferred domain structure for your multisite network:

There are two ways your sub-sites (the websites you will create under your main domain) can look. They can either be:

Subdomains – eg. uk.eliteweb.co

Sub-directories – eg. eliteweb.co/uk/

Whilst this doesn’t affect the way your domains will be (other than the appearance of the URL), it will affect the way you set up your multisite network. The below steps is for subdomains only. You will find instructions for sub-directories by clicking here.

Add a multisite network using subdomains:

Step 1 – enable the multisite network feature

In order to start creating your multisite, you’ll need to enable the multisite functionality. This isn’t too hard to do as it comes built in with WordPress, it is just automatically disabled.

To enable it, you have to edit the wp-config.php file. This is the important file which has all of the most important settings regarding your WordPress installation. You can edit this by using an FTP client or with the File Manager app found within your hosting account control panel.

Once you have successfully located and opened the folder, find the line that states: ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.‘ Above this line, insert the following line of code:

define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Once you have done this, save your changes.

Step 2 – Set up wildcard subdomains

In order to have subdomains within your multisite network, you need to set up wildcard subdomains first and foremost. You will need to log into your WordPress cPanel dashboard and locate the domains section on the left sidebar. Then navigate to subdomains.

From here, enter the * symbol in the subdomain field and then find your main domain from inside the drop-down menu. The document root will be automatically picked up by cPanel and it will show up, allowing you to hit the create button. Now you’ve set up your wildcard subdomain, let’s look at setting up custom domains for all of your sites.

Step 3 – Set up a custom domain for each site:

You can set unique domains for each of your websites in your multisite network. To set this up, you will need to add an A record for your new sub-domain to point to your new website. Please see the example below:

Type	Name	Data	TTL
A	site1.@	123.456.789.10	10,000 seconds

Type: The kind of record that is used, this decides and shows its requirements behavior and requirements

Name: The domain or subdomain that your record is pointing towards. In this case, the ‘@’ shows a plain domain.

Data: The destination of the record. This can differ depending on the value of the type.

TTL: The time that a DNS server will wait before it refreshes the record. A shorter TTL will result in a faster DNS updates. However, longer TTLs will give a higher performance and more resilience.

Upon refreshing the admin dashboard page in your WordPress dashboard, you’ll want to visit Tools then Network Setup to start configuring and creating your WordPress multisite network.

Firstly, check the subdomains box under Addresses of Sites in your Network. Then add your Network Title and a Network Admin Email. Once you have decided and entered these, click install.

WordPress will now ask that you add two snippets of code, as highlighted below. One needs to go in the wp-config.php, and the other in the .htaccess.

In addition to the code displayed by WordPress, you will need to add the following line into your wp-config.php file (this allows users to log in to each of your sites):

define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] );

Now log back in. You should be able to view a menu item labelled ‘My Sites’ next to the WordPress logo in the top right. Hover over this and then select network admin and then dashboard. Now advance to find out how to add a sub-site in your multisite network.

Add a multisite using sub-directories

In order to start creating your multisite, you’ll need to enable the multisite functionality. This isn’t too hard to do as it comes built in with WordPress, it is just automatically disabled.

To enable it, you have to edit the wp-config.php file. This is the important file which has all of the most important settings regarding your WordPress installation. You can edit this by using an FTP client or with the File Manager app found within your hosting account control panel.

Once you have successfully located and opened the folder, find the line that states: ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.‘ Above this line, insert the following line of code:

define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Now, save your changes, and return to the Admin Dashboard. If you are building your multisite network within a pre-existing WordPress website, you must de-activate all plugins before you proceed. Locate the plugins along the left sidebar, then go to your installed plugins. By using the bulk actions at the top, you can de-activate all your plugins at once by bulk selecting them all, then choosing deactivate in the drop-down menu and pressing apply.

Configure your multisite network:

Navigate to your tools, and then select your network setup to configure your multisite network.

Under Addresses of Sites in your Network, choose sub-directories and then enter the Network Title and Network Admin Email. Once you’ve correctly entered this information, click install to continue. WordPress will now ask you to add two lines of code in both your wp-config.php file and .htaaccess file. Follow the on-screen instructions before you re-login to your WordPress site. Once you’ve logged in, you should be able to view a menu item labelled ‘My Sites’ next to the WordPress logo in the top right. Hover over this and then select network admin and then dashboard.

Creating your first sub-site using sub-directories:

Once you’ve navigated to your Network Admin dashboard, you should notice some new items giving you options to manage your multisite network. To configure your network settings, click on the settings in the left sidebar. You should notice that the site title and admin email address fields will be automatically filled in with the information you previously entered.

The most important setting on your network settings is the Registration Settings. You’ll be able to see that the user and site registrations are disabled by default by the network. You have the option to open your site for new users to register, allow existing users to create new sites, or even both.

Similarly, you can edit the default settings for when new sites are created in the new site settings. You can change the welcome emails as well as the contents of the first post, page and comments that display as defaults.

Multisite network upload settings

In the upload settings section, you’ll be able to monitor and change the the usage of your server resources. By default, it is set at 100MB, which will do for around 100 photos uploaded to your site. However, you have the option to increase or decrease this space (this of course depends on your disk space). You can also choose a file size limit, as well as what types of files are or aren’t allowed.

Creating a new site on your multisite network:

With all the set up complete, let’s look at creating your first sub-site.

From the multisite network admin dashboard, locate sites on the left hand sidebar and then add new. Enter the required information into the necessary fields. Save the changes and continue to add as many sites as you wish.

And just like that, you’ve created your own multisite network! Whilst you’re free to add as many sites as you wish, be mindful of your hosting and how much storage you have available. For the best hosting, choose The Elite Web Co’s., hosting plans to help support your newly found network in the best way!