Setting up a WordPress multisite network can be a great solution to many issues that plague people who need multiple websites. A multisite network allows many websites to be created from a single installation, potentially saving money and giving you plenty of control over what happens on each of the websites.
The list of benefits does not end there – you can also install WordPress themes for all websites in one place. You can do the same with plugins – as long as they support multisite networks. And it may come as a surprise that some of the more prominent ones, such as Google’s Site Kit, do not support installation on multisite networks.
Don’t worry – we’re going to tell you about some of the essential plugins a WordPress multisite network needs. Some help you do multisite specific things, while others help network websites work well. Be warned, however, that some of the plugins we’ll be talking about will require a higher tier paid version for multisite support.
Here are the multi-site WordPress plugins we will be talking about:
There’s no way around this – most websites, if not all, will need a way to connect with Google. Whether you want to add Google Search to your website is up to you – but you’ll probably need to connect it to Google Analytics either way. And one of the best ways to do this for a multisite network is, MonsterInsights.
Ever since Google released the Site Kit WordPress plugin, it has had a real alternative for people to the mega popular MonsterInsights plugin. However, since Site Kit doesn’t offer multisite support, it’s only natural for you to turn to the reigning plugin king for Google Analytics. Also, soon you will be able to use Google Analytics with all the permissions and controls you want.
The downside? It may not be obvious from the plugin’s WordPress.org page, but MonsterInsights offers multisite support only with the Agency plan, which is the most expensive paid plan and starts at around $400 per year when discounted. You can shop around, but you’ll notice that other plugins that do the same thing have a similar policy of keeping multisite support behind a paywall.
Managing several websites can be a real hassle, even if they are part of several multisite networks. Even if the workload isn’t particularly challenging, doing the same routine over and over can be mind-blowing. User Switching This is a plugin that can help with a small part of the routine – logging in and out of different accounts.
Whatever type of work you need to do on any of your subsites, you will be able to do so using the role that best suits you, without having to log out of your account and log into another account. You can instantly switch to the account you want from the Users screen without showing any of your passwords. All standard security measures are now implemented to make the passage as safe and secure as possible. This addon may not be a life saver, but it eliminates a certain annoyance without paying a dime.
If there was a plugin that didn’t require login, this would be it Yoast SEO. With over five million active installs and a solid five-star rating as you’ll see, Yoast SEO is arguably the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. To make things even better, it is also multi-site friendly.
We have already covered how to install and setup Yoast SEO. What you will get after installing it is a tool that will help your website SEO in many different ways. For example, if you need technical help with canonical URLs, the plugin will do it on its own. It will also be there when you need to write better content, ensuring your website communicates with search engines in the best possible way.
Yoast SEO is available in two versions – a free one and a Premium one. There seems to be no reason why you shouldn’t install the free version on your WordPress multisite network and take full advantage of this great plugin. Plus, the premium plans start at $89 and bring even more incredible and useful tools to keep your websites in top condition and fully optimize them.
Each site you own in your multisite network can be its own private entity with only the plugins, themes and settings and content it has. However, most of the time you will want some kind of uniformity between websites. At the very least, you will want to create a basic version of the website that you will upgrade with additional features based on specific needs. here NS Cloner – Site Copier comes in.
NS Cloner copies websites. He does it well, he does it fast, and he does it thoroughly. Pages, posts, custom post types, taxonomies, widgets, menus, theme, media and associated data – they all copy so fast that you have to double check to make sure it’s really there.
And this is only in the free version. The paid version, which starts at $298 for two installations, can be used to clone not only multisite, but standalone sites or clone to a remote network, perform search and replace, and many other interesting things.
Security is one of the things you need to take seriously with WordPress. It’s a big CMS, which makes it a big sign for scoundrel actors of all kinds. Having a multisite network doesn’t help either – if any of the sites on the network catch an error, the entire network will get it too. More reasons to choose a solid WordPress security plugin – like WordFence Security.
WordPress Security adds a powerful browser and a robust firewall to your website’s security tools. It also supports two-factor authentication and allows all security-related tasks to be handled from one central location. With the click of a button, you can scan your entire network for malware.
Taking this one step further with Premium will significantly increase the security of your multisite network. Depending on the number of licenses you get, the plugin can cost you around $75 on the more affordable end. For that money, you get real-time protection and lots of other features that you’ll quickly learn to love.
Few plugins have same status UpdraftPlus to do. This backup and restore plugin has over three million active installs, a five-star rating, and provides an incredibly useful service. It does this for multisite installations as well – but only in the premium version.
There are a few points that are mentioned a lot when talking about UpdraftPlus. First, it’s a backup plugin that also has restore capabilities, making it the only solution you’ll ever need to make sure you never lose any content on your website. The plugin will back up your website to multiple cloud servers and will do this automatically according to a schedule you specify.
For someone with a WordPress multisite network, The value of the plugin comes after you get the Premium version, which starts at $70. That’s when multi-site compatibility comes into play.. It also happens, for example, when Migrator becomes available, which allows you to replicate your websites. Database encryption, advanced reporting, and backup of non-WP files and databases are outstanding features that make this plugin a worthwhile choice.
One obvious issue that can come from having a multisite WordPress network is that websites don’t need to be in the same language. If your multisite network has blogs that need to reach multilingual audiences, it can be difficult for the audience to navigate between different language versions of content. Multi-Site Language Switcher It is a plugin that aims to fix this.
With this plugin you can easily add multilingual support to your multilingual blog network. The plugin allows you to link posts, pages and taxonomies so your website viewer can easily switch between different language versions. This plugin is free to use, so you only need to take your time to link all these posts, pages, tags and categories.
Spreading content across multiple websites on the same network can make it difficult to search for something specific. Also, WordPress search isn’t the most powerful feature of the CMS – there’s a lot to improve on there.and some of it can be obtained using the plugin Relevanssi – A Better Search.
The free version of the plugin offers out-of-the-box, relevance-sorted search results, partial matching for queries, AND and OR queries, searching for exact phrases using quotation marks, and many more great things. They are all multisite friendly and even let you search for comments, tags, categories and custom fields.
However, if you have a multisite, you will get the most usage from the plugin if you go for the premium version. Some of the premium features include suggestions for indexing and proofreading attached content. The feature that makes this plugin extra useful for multi-site users is cross-site search. All this will set you back $99 per year.
Let’s wrap it up!
A WordPress website is usually only as good as the theme and plugins you use to support it and keep it running securely. When you have a WordPress multisite network, the risks increase and everything starts to matter. Theme and plugins start to look very important!
Well, the plugins you use with multisite networks is a story in itself. Not only will you need the plugins that every other website uses to work like a well-oiled machine, you’ll also need to look for any plugins that can make it easier to manage a web of websites. But once you take them and put your toolset together, there’s almost no limit to what you can do with your websites.
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