Welcome to the brave new world of managing multiple websites. You’ve made it this far, congrats!
Creating a website is no easy feat, but tack on multiple websites to manage and you’ve got yourself another skill to add to your resume.
Whether you’re a business owner or managing websites is your business, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Luckily, there are tools and strategies that can help!
When many people create a website, they forget about the maintenance that needs to be done after they’ve launched. It’s understandable that some folks don’t even make it to launching because there’s a ton of work to get it up and running. But you, my friend, are one of the brave ones and we understand that you need a helping hand to manage multiple sites.
We all want our businesses to run smoothly. We want to keep our customers and clients happy. We want the websites we manage to be successful and secure.
Proper website maintenance and creation helps to make these desires a reality.
Read on to learn killer multi-site management techniques to make your job a lot easier.
Multi-Site Management Tactics
Managing one website is hard enough. Managing multiple sites is an art. Explore the following tactics to make multi-site management run much smoother.
1. Have a Plan
Before you continue to update or launch your website have a plan in mind. Know exactly what you need for your website and stick to the plan.
It’s easy to feel like you want the latest plugin to grace your website, but ask yourself if you really need it. Everything on your websites needs to be updated and maintained. Know exactly what services you’re a part of, what you’ve uploaded, and how to keep these up-to-date.
The less unnecessary add-ons the better. Sometimes the plan comes with trial and error, but knowing in advance exactly what you need for each website will help you to lower your site maintenance efforts and lessen the time needed to update.
2. Make a List
Time to get organized! Once you have a plan in place for each website, make a list of the needs, goals, and updates for each.
How many times per week does content need to be uploaded? When will plugins need to be updated? How often will you need to do backups?
Having a list of all the websites you manage in one place can help you to be more organized and reduce your stress. When you can clearly see exactly what needs to be done and when you can reduce the number of mistakes made.
Even better? A checklist that can help you to ensure each task is done and all is in good order.
3. Invest in a Mult-Website Management Tool
This is a big one and probably the most help tactic of all. We all know it’s a hassle to individually log in and out of each website we manage. By investing in a multi-site tool for WordPress you’ll have access to all the websites you manage in one place. This means you’ll be able to edit themes, plugins, and complete updates all in one fell swoop.
The first tool you can use is WordPress Multi-Site. WP Multisite combines all of the sites you’re in charge of managing into one admin dashboard. This means only one login and one log out. Eureka!
With WP Multi-Site you can complete security checks, update plugins, and manage themes and website design.
Multi-Site is great to use when the website you manage have similar design and functionality needs. It’s also great to use for businesses who have multiple websites.
Keep in mind, however, if two of your clients have way different hosting and design needs, Multi-Site may not be the way to go. For example, when you update or add a plugin to on Multi-Site it may not be compatible on every site you manage.
Updating the plugin or installing a new one may cause problems for some sites, but not others.
There is a way to manage and see which sites could be affected, but this still means more work for you in the long run. Also keep in mind that if one website you manage crashes, then they all crash at once.
Another tool to help with multi-site management is Main WordPress. MainWP is a great tool that allows you to use a site as a parent/admin website and then add child websites to it. This allows you to see all of your websites you manage in one location.
If you work with multiple businesses and don’t use the same web designs for each this tool will also be beneficial.
The free version allows you to access all of the websites in one location, but it doesn’t update or install plugins or updates to every site you manage. If you want to have this function, then you can upgrade to a membership plan at cost.
4. Customer Communication
Provide your customers with one easy way to reach you. Whether through your admin panel if you’re using a multisite management tool or simply one email address, having one stream of communication will help you to stay organized.
Your clients and their customers are most likely going to notice a problem before you do. They visit these sites regularly and should alert you when their site is acting up. By having one simple way for clients to reach you, you can handle all problems in the order they were received or on an as-needed basis.
Ready to Put These Multi-Site Management Tactics to Good Use?
Managing websites can be a hassle, but knowing how to simplify the process is crucial to success. By implementing these tips and keeping organized you can make multi-site management a whole lot easier.
Want to invest in monitoring services to make sure your websites are always active? Sign-up today for our services and take one more task off of your to-do list!
