New multisite setup; Questions and Scenarios

  • Hello

    I have an organization that currently has a website bit4map.com (example domain).
    This domain already contains posts, pages, galleries, etc.

    The organization is on the merge on having multiple teams on different locations around the world, so I started looking into the multisite feature.

    My first idea was having sub-domains for each location, i.e. france.bit4map.com, germany.bit4map.com, etc. because it looks professional, but as I kept reading about the sub-domain vs sub-directory, I’m now confused of what to select.

    The problem is that the site is not new, so right now, the only option I have is sub-directories as I’ve read. So if I still want to have sub-domains, then I need to make a new installation?

    My scenario that I was thinking about is the following:

    Currently, as those teams of different locations are starting fresh, they are not yet ready to manage their part of the site, either sub-domain or sub-directory, so I was thinking about doing it myself temporarily. I’m thinking about moving the main site to a sub-domain and keep the main url to have “top news” and “menus” to the different locations.

    So, my questions are:

    What is the difference between sub-domain vs sub-directory, other than the look of the url?

    – Administrative side;
    Is there a difference in the options of the control panel? Is the control panel separate in sub-domain and not-separate if sub-directory?

    – Theme wise;
    If I want one theme for all sites, will it be a problem if it’s subdomain vs subdirectory? What if I do custom modification to the theme (which I will probably do), what happens if the sites is on a subdomains or subdirectories?

    – FTP;
    If I have the sites on different subdomains, it means I have different folders for it, which will be outside of the main site directory.
    How would this work out? Does this mean that I have to manually upload the files of WP to each subdomain folder?
    What if it’s a sub-directory install? How would the file-structure be, and would I need to upload the files as well?

    – Links & SEO;
    The main site is already out there and it has gained rank and is on google already (obviously).
    If I’m going to move the current main site to a subdomain, that would probably destroy the ranks and all shared links on facebook, twitter, etc.
    Is there a way to automatically redirect if those current links will be used after the site as been switched to a subdomain?
    What is it’s a subdirectory, I assume it still would do the same issue?

    What about google? Would it have a problem with the different scenarios?

    – Restricting;
    If I want to restrict the management of plugins and theme of the different sites and have a global “switch” for those two, how would I do that?
    New usergroup? Creating an account on each site? idk

    Regards
    iraqiboy90

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    If you want the FASTEST answer you need to hire someone.

    Everyone’s a volunteer and it’s a weekend. Please try to have a more realistic view on the matter.

    What is the difference between sub-domain vs sub-directory, other than the look of the url?

    Nothing except your .htaccess file.

    In both cases, Admin is the same, themes and plugins and all that is the same. Also there’s no such thing as ‘FTP’ when it comes to this. The sites (be they subfolders or subdomains) are virtual. No one gets FTP access because it’s one install of WP. No folders.

    Google also doesn’t care either way.

    Thread Starter iraqiboy90

    (@iraqiboy90)

    Thanks ??

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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