At McNair Media, a lot of our clients have multiple websites and it can be frustrating to have to manage multiple logins across sites. WordPress has a solution for this and that is WordPress multisite installations. One thing we see is that there’s a little confusion about how that functions, particularly with plugins. In a WordPress Multisite network, you have the ability to install plugins and themes that can be activated across multiple sites within the network.
- Plugin Installation:
- Network Admin: Go to the Network Admin dashboard, then to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Add New’.
- Install: Search for the plugin you want, then click ‘Install Now’.
- Network Activate: If you want the plugin to be active on all sites, click ‘Network Activate’. This makes the plugin available to all sites within the network.
- Activation on Individual Sites:
- Site Admin: If you want to activate the plugin on specific sites, go to the individual site’s dashboard.
- Plugins: Navigate to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Installed Plugins’.
- Activate: Locate the desired plugin, then click ‘Activate’.
Note: Only the network admin has the ability to install plugins, but individual site admins can choose to activate or deactivate network-installed plugins on their sites, depending on network settings.
