the aging of multiple WordPress websites is a hassle. Making multiple sets of names and passwords or the need to install plugins or themes on and off. It’s not like anyone has time to do this.
The process of setting up a brand new WordPress Multisite installation as well as creating new sub-sites isn’t too difficult, but how is the process of transferring existing websites into a new or an existing Multisite site?
There are a variety of reasons you may want to consider this, for instance you could:
- You can save your time. Instead of installing and updating WordPress themes, themes and plugins across multiple sites, you can accomplish everything at one time.
- It is easy to manage your clients’ websites. If you manage websites for several users, Multisite allows you to manage all of your clients’ websites in one location.
How exactly do you transfer multiple blogs to Multisite? Let’s get started.
As birds migrate It is also possible for you to move (your blogs, that’s).
Basic Housekeeping
It’s best to begin with a good old traditional spring cleaning.
Log in to each of your sites, and remove the old users, posts that are not needed as well as spam posts. This not only helps to eliminate clutter but also helps keep your website clean future export. We’ll go into that more in this post.
Certain plugins could interfere in the process of exporting, creating an unfinished or incomplete file. It’s recommended to deactivate the plugins on single-site blogs as you tidy up your websites.
Backup Your Sites
Next step backing your blog in the method you’re comfortable with, whether that’s to utilize cPanel, an application for backup of databases like WPMU DEV’s Snapshot or a third-party website such as VaultPress or even manually copying your entire site’s content into the appropriate folder on your PC. This ensures that your site won’t be destroyed in the event of a problem and you are able to easily restore it.
Export Your Blogs
Export your WordPress pages and posts using WordPress Exporter.
For each single-site installation For each single-site installation, click the Tools tab and select Export. Click on all content and select to download the Export files. This will save all the pages, posts comments custom fields, phrases navigation menus, as well as custom posts for each website into an .XML file.
Be aware that the widget configuration, settings for your blog/plugin, as well the branding and navigation choices aren’t exported using this manner. It’s best to record the settings you’ve made so that you can modify them later.
Set Up Multisite
If you’re not yet having a Multisite account installed, get it done now. Install the most recent Version of WordPress and go to the Codex to get a complete rundown of how you can build an online network.
Create Sites For Each Blog You Want to Import
Create a new website for each blog you wish to host. Visit My Sites > Network Administration and click Websites Click Create New.
Input the address of the site along with the title of the site as well as admin emails for every site, ensuring that you are the same names. It is important to be certain prior to clicking “Add Site” to confirm the information for each website because you don’t want to rename your sub-domain in the future.
Import the Files For Each Blog
Visit the blog’s backend within your Multisite installation, and then import the appropriate .XML file that you exported previously ( Tools > Import).
If you don’t yet use the importer for WordPress, WP will ask you to install it.
Once you have clicked upload and upload after that, on the next screen, you should check the box that pulls images as well as other attachments. If your media is accessible on one of our installation WordPress Importer, the WordPress Importer attempts to download files from the original server. WordPress export files don’t contain attachments within the backups file, only the pages and posts.
Copy Theme and Plugin Files
Themes and plugins you have copied of your Single Site installs to the appropriate folders for themes and plugins in the Multisite configuration.
Next step copying the plugin and theme file from single-site installs to their new directories of the Multisite configuration.
It’s the easiest way to accomplish this through FTP or cPanel with the File Manager. Start by opening the wp-content folder to install your Multisite and then navigate to the plugins. Copy the plugins from all blog to this folder.
You’ll then have to enable your plugins via network.
The same process applies to your themes. Go to the wp-content/themes folder and transfer your blog theme to the folder.
It is recommended to verify that whether your plugins work with Multisite prior to copying the plugins across. If the plugin you want to copy is not supported, look for an alternative on the WordPress Plugin Repository
Edit the Configuration Settings For Each Site
Your settings for plugins and widgets and the menu you prefer to use, will be lost for every website and, unfortunately, there’s no way to get around it. You’ll need to change these settings for each one of your sites to make them look exactly like they were before.
This involves changing the Customize options available in your appearance section, changing the logo as well as navigational elements, changing the position of your widgets and changing your settings to suit each plugin.
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