Managing multiple websites under a single WordPress installation and central CMS is made easier and faster with WordPress Multisite, a powerful tool that can streamline your digital strategy. However, if you're running a network of sites, there are important SEO considerations to take into account, such as content duplication and canonical issues. In this article, we'll break down the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress Multisite for SEO and detail how to set up and manage WordPress Multisite with best practices, for maximum SEO impact.
What is WordPress Multisite?
With a WordPress Multisite installation, you can use a single WordPress installation to develop and manage several websites. Although each website may have its own themes, plugins, and content, they all share the same database and core files. This implies that compared to having a separate WordPress installation for every extra site, you would use a lot less server space. Although WordPress Multisite offers numerous advantages, such as a more centralized administration system and possible cost savings, it's crucial to consider the SEO ramifications before using WordPress Multisite.
WordPress Multisite for SEO: The Benefits
Streamlined SEO Strategy
One centralized SEO plan can be implemented with Multisite WordPress. This makes it considerably simpler to create and manage content and optimize your pages for search engines, including on-page optimization. Yoast and other useful plugins will make it simple for you to manage on-page SEO on all of your websites.
Cost Efficiency
It can take a lot of resources to manage several websites independently. You may be able to save money on hosting and upkeep if you choose WordPress Multisite. Running several websites under a single installation rather than keeping separate hosting plans and licenses for each site can be more economical. Nevertheless, this will vary throughout organizations based on their resources and objectives.
Time and Security
WordPress Multisite can make it easier to update plugins, themes, and WordPress itself. You can install, activate, and update your website features for all of your websites at once, saving you time and guaranteeing that your websites are always secure and up to date.
Centralised User Management
You can control user roles and permissions centrally using Multisite. For marketing directors and digital project managers who need to allow or deny access to multiple teams working on the numerous kid websites, this is quite helpful. Users on different sites can be assigned various responsibilities, which improves security and control.
Future-proof your website
If your company wants to grow or expand into new services or territories, WordPress Multisite may be the best option. Multisite's advantages include the ability to quickly and easily create new sites and take advantage of the infrastructure that already exists, which is appealing to many companies with multiple sub-brands that wish to maintain management of all sites in a single platform.
Things To Watch Out For
Potential for Duplicate Content
Duplicate material is one of the main issues with WordPress Multisite. Because Google finds it difficult to distinguish between pages with identical content, duplicate material can have a negative effect on SEO. You run the risk of your pages competing for the same keywords or Google not ranking your duplicate material at all. Making ensuring that every page displays unique content and differentiating all of your content are crucial. The likelihood of duplicate content is reduced since, in many circumstances, if your company is developing new websites, they will probably have unique brand identities and content.
Over-Optimization
You run the risk of over-optimizing your content across multiple sites when you use centralised SEO management. While it's important to keep your SEO strategy consistent, it's equally important to adjust it to the unique needs of each site. You should avoid using duplicate keywords in general, but especially between parent sites and child sites, as this could put you in danger of competing against any child sites.
Performance and Loading Speed
WordPress multisite can affect performance, particularly when you add more sites to the network. Websites that load slowly may have a detrimental impact on SEO rankings. Invest in dependable hosting with enough resources, speed up your websites, and keep an eye on their functionality to help offset this. We also advise you to do routine audits to monitor SEO performance, which should include examining the internal linking structure of your websites, repairing any broken links, and adding any missing anchor text.
Complex SEO Management
It can be more difficult to manage SEO for several websites than for just one. Having a well-defined SEO strategy that is specific to each page and its objectives is essential. For more efficient administration, think about utilizing SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush and plugins like Yoast that support WordPress Multisite.
People
It is typically insufficient to have all the tools necessary to handle several users and permission kinds across several territories in order to forecast the behavior of your teams. Sub-brand and child site website managers, individual country marketing managers, and other team members running your CMSes are likely to develop their own habits over time that will adversely affect your SEO. One effective strategy to address the human element is to have a centralized set of stringent SOPs and training materials, as well as to regularly meet with your website editors.
Content peer review, where uploaded pages are usually given a "four eyes" approval procedure, and regular audits of writing methods between junior and senior colleagues are features of the most advanced website management systems.
Content peer review, where uploaded pages are usually given a "four eyes" approval procedure, and regular audits of writing methods between junior and senior colleagues are features of the most advanced website management systems.
How this looks in practice
As a digital agency, we are eager to make sure our clients' digital strategy is as aligned as possible, and the Crucible team suggested WordPress Multisite to some of our clients. Multisite is a good option for organizations with multiple additional sites or sub-brands, and we work closely with our clients to ensure that there is no risk of duplicate content or performance issues.
WordPress Multisite for Higher Education Websites
Churchill College, University of Cambridge
For the revamp of Churchill College's website at the University of Cambridge, we suggested WordPress Multisite. Several administrative users in different departments of the college needed varying degrees of access. The Churchill team, together with its several departments, societies, and stakeholders, can swiftly and easily develop additional child sites in the future by installing WordPress Multisite. It also implies that content is easy to handle for content editors and website managers.
During the Multisite construction, Churchill College's SEO needed to be safeguarded because they had established a significant online profile. In order to make sure that there was no redundant or conflicting material on any of the child sites, the Crucible team installed Yoast SEO on both the main site and each of the child sites.
During the Multisite construction, Churchill College's SEO needed to be safeguarded because they had established a significant online profile. In order to make sure that there was no redundant or conflicting material on any of the child sites, the Crucible team installed Yoast SEO on both the main site and each of the child sites.
2. Use a subfolder to create child sites (yoursite.com/blog, for example).
The potential effects of employing subdomains or subfolders on SEO results are hotly debated. However, John Muller of Google claims that "Google web search is fine with using either subdomains or subdirectories," implying that the two choices are identical. However, it's crucial to keep in mind that if your company decides to use subdomains, you should make sure that all of your websites are strategically linked internally in order to maximize SEO rankings across all of your sites.
We encountered this exact difficulty when creating a new set of websites for a global reproductive organization. We used a WordPress Multisite in part to balance their SEO across several brands, nations, and languages.
Is WordPress Multisite for SEO good or bad?
While WordPress Multisite has many benefits for businesses with multiple departments, sub-brands, independent territories, or products, it's important to think about the SEO benefits and pitfalls of using Multisite, as well as how to avoid having your SEO efforts negatively impacted. By implementing a central CMS, teams will be able to manage all content quickly and efficiently, and with the right setup, there may be additional SEO benefits.
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