Equal Design are WordPress Consultants, Web Design & Computer Services in Leyland, Lancashire, Preston

For a long time we have used WordPress for creating a number of websites, many of which can be seen in our portfolio.  However WordPress comes in 2 flavours (at the moment anyway).  WordPress MU is a multiuser version of WordPress that allows for any number of ‘blogs’ or sites to be created with one install. Therefore we thought that it was time to take a look at WordPress MU and find out the benefits.

Firstly the install.  It is almost as easy as WordPress itself apart from the fact that you have to choose between whether you want your additional blogs created as sub domains (example.domain.com) or as sub folders or directories (domain.com/example).  We decided sub domains was the best way to go and therefore we had to add a wildcard DNS entry in order to allow any subdomain to be added.  Our friendly hosting partners obliged to our request on this one!  Once that was done the install was easy.

So we started to look at the benefits of using WPMU over WordPress for our home site.  Firstly we tend to create quite a lot of sites.  For many of the clients that we create websites for, we tend to install a test version of their site on our servers so that we can tweak around with things before they are live.  It is handy to give clients access to this so that they can see the changes that are taking place on their site and make comments and suggestions that we can then act on.  In the past we have had to install a separate copy of WordPress for each site.  Using WPMU makes this much easier as we just add a blog and make them a user on that blog.  It also means that we can just use one admin side of things to look after all the users of the sites.

Another advantage is that all of the files for the websites that we have created are in one place.  This makes it easier to manage locally when making changes and uploading to the server.  As we use Dreamweaver to make changes and upload we can just create one local site and then use this for all the websites on the install.

Upgrading is also no longer as much of an issue.  In the past all the sites would need upgrading separately which was a painstaking task in itself.  This was made easier with WordPress v2.7 (I think it was 2.7!) when they introduced the automatic upgrade but it still took a while to login to all the sites and upgrade them all.  Now this is all done from the one install of WPMU and all the site can be updated there and then with the click of a button.

I have come across two small disadvantages whilst using the software.  Firstly the ability to add a gallery to a page or post seems to have gone and files are not being stored as ‘post attachments’ anymore. Secondly you don’t seem to be able to change the category slugs, only the names.  However it is early days and maybe I am doing something wrong, but I am sure we will learn this as we go along.

Still first impression suggest that WordPress MU is an excellent addition to using WordPress for multiple sites and so far it seems as though it was the right decision.