How to Move Your Existing Site to a Multisite WordPress Installation
You’ve built up a successful blog or website over the years, and now you want to make the next logical step and expand your reach to become a media company.
The first step in this direction is to consider how you will utilize WordPress multisite. A site built on WordPress multisite is capable of hosting many blogs or online stores, which can be a valuable tool for your growth.
Step One: Set Up The WordPress Multi-Site
The first step in this direction is to consider how you will utilize WordPress multisite. A site built on WordPress multisite is capable of hosting many blogs or online stores, which can be a valuable tool for your growth. To set up a WordPress multisite, you will need to utilize a tool called “Site Building on WordPress.com.”
Once you’ve launched this tool, you’ll see a landing page where you can type in the URL of your existing site. Simply copy and paste the URL from your browser’s address bar.
After you’ve entered the URL for your existing site, you’ll be presented with options for how you want to structure your multisite. For the purposes of this tutorial, let’s assume you’ve chosen a two-tier structure with the primary site being blog.com and the secondary site being media.blog.com. You’ll want to make sure you select the green button that says “Create a new site”; this will launch the Site Building tool on your WordPress dashboard.
Step Two: Set Up The Blog-specific Dashboard
One of the first things you’ll need to do is to set up a blog-specific dashboard on the WordPress servers. This is a place where you can find all of your blogging-related settings and tools. You’ll also need to make sure that you’ve entered a unique and descriptive name for your new blog. For this tutorial, let’s call it “The Moz Blog.”
Once you’ve named your new blog and you’re on your way to setting up a dashboard, you’ll be presented with a variety of options for how you want to lay out your blog. You can choose from a variety of free themes that come with a premium WordPress license or you can create your own from scratch.
Step Three: Configure The General Settings For Your Blog
In the next step of the process, you’ll want to configure the general settings for your blog. First, you’ll need to decide whether you want to enable automatic backups for your blog or not. If you’ve never had a WP blog without automatic backups, this may seem like a no-brainer to enable them. However, if you’re running a commercial site or just want to make sure your content is always available, you may want to consider disabling these feature.
You’ll also want to decide how you want to deploy your blog. Do you want to use WordPress’s built-in CDN to host your blog’s content or will you opt to utilize your own web host? The decision to use a CDN will depend on your budget and the type of hosting you have.
Step Four: Set Up The Security For Your Blog
In the next step of the process, you’ll want to set up the security for your blog. You have three options here: You can create a closed network with a restricted entrance, generate a random password, or use the existing login credentials for your existing site. The first two options are quite similar; you will need to decide which one seems more suitable for your needs. If you’ve followed all of the previous steps correctly, you should already have a unique and descriptive name for your new blog and you’ve set up a WordPress multisite with two blogs: blog.com and media.blog.com. From here, you can create as many blogs as you’d like and give them unique names.
Step Five: Create Your First Blog
Once you’ve arrived at this point, you’ll be presented with a template that you can use to create your first blog. WordPress offers a variety of free SEO optimized themes that you can download and install on your blog. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that these themes are very similar to ones you would find on a commercial blog or website. The great thing about these themes is their SEO flexibility which allows you to modify the look and feel of your blog without needing any code knowledge.
Step Six: Post The Initial Content To Your Blog
Now that your blog is up and running, it’s time to populate it with content. Once you’ve set up your security and logged into your WordPress dashboard, you can begin adding blog posts to your new creation. WordPress offers many templates for you to choose from when adding new content to your blog. Each template comes with a different set of features and customization options, which provide you with a variety of options when it comes to the content you post.
There are a few differences between these templates and the one you used to set up your existing site. First, many of these templates are designed for SEO and so may require additional settings to be made in order to fully utilize all of its features. Additionally, some of these templates come with a shopping cart capability built in, which can be a valuable feature for eCommerce sites or online stores. Finally, many of these templates can be used for both blogging and non-blogging websites alike, which means you can utilize them to create a standard website or online store without having to make any changes to its content.
Step Seven: Start Building Your Audience
Once you’ve got your initial content posted to your blog, it’s time to start building your audience. You’ve got three options here: You can use free tools like Google Ads to promote your blog, you can create email newsletters as a means of promoting your blog, or you can participate in online communities (e.g., Reddit) to gain popularity.
If you’ve been paying attention throughout this process, you’ll see that every step has been designed to take you closer to becoming a successful WordPress blogger. Now that you’ve arrived at this point, it’s time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.