WordPress Foundation Suffers Setback In Trademark Application via @sejournal, @martinibuster

The WordPress Foundation suffered a setback in its attempt to trademark the phrases ‘Managed WordPress’ and ‘Hosted WordPress,’ which could have allowed them to demand licensing fees for their use. An organization called Unprotected.org published documents showing it successfully petitioned the U.S. Patent Office to deny the trademarks.

The Uprotected.org website published:

“We have successfully made a petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) against both trademark applications for “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress”.

They then quoted the United States Patent Office decision:

“Applicant must disclaim the wording “MANAGED” because it is merely descriptive of an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose, or use of applicant’s goods and services.

…This wording appears in the identification of goods and services. Thus, the wording merely describes applicant’s goods and services because applicant provides software for managing content on a website.”

Next Steps

The WordPress Foundation has three months to file a response, according to the documentation:

“Response deadline. File a response to this nonfinal Office action within three months of the “Issue date” below to avoid abandonment of the application.”

The Register quoted the owner of Unprotected.org:

“This represents a great victory for the WordPress ecosystem, and we will continue to fight until there is accountability and a change in leadership…”

They went on to promote Joost de Valk as a new leader. Joost de Valk himself has to date promoted the idea of a change in the leadership structure of the WordPress open source project, with Matt Mullenweg still playing a role.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/alpin78

WordPress SEO Myths Busted: What You Really Need To Know via @sejournal, @cshel

WordPress powers over 40% of websites globally – and why would it not? It is relatively easy to use and has expansive options when it comes to plugins and pre-built themes.

But even though WordPress has been in active development and use for more than 20 years, misconceptions about WordPress SEO are rampant and many site owners are confused about what truly drives rankings.

Because I can’t respond to every single misconception that pops up on X (Twitter) or Reddit, I would like to clear up some of the confusion by busting the more pervasive myths and sharing actionable insights based on my experience.

Whether you’re an old pro or running your first site, I hope you leave with clarity and confidence in your WordPress SEO strategy.

Myth #1: WordPress Is Going Away Or Shutting Down

The Reality: Despite the current public debate about governance, I *assure* you – WordPress isn’t going anywhere.

It remains a robust, community-driven platform with a massive global user base.

WordPress’ open-source nature makes it incredibly flexible and free to use, but open-source also means that discussions about its future direction happen publicly and, sometimes, loudly.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • WordPress Isn’t Going Away Anytime Soon: The core functionality of WordPress remains stable and widely supported. The infrastructure is backed by millions of contributors, developers, and users.
  • What If There’s a Fork? Forks happen in open-source projects more often than you might think. Some are a bigger deal than others. If you’ve heard this mentioned and it made you nervous because you don’t really know what it means, please be assured there is no reason for panic. A fork happens when developers create a new version by branching off from the original project. While this sounds dramatic, forks typically prioritize compatibility to retain users. Most plugins will remain compatible in the early stages, and developers often create tools to make transitions seamless.
  • The Bottom Line: There’s no immediate reason to leave WordPress. Any major changes will take time, and you’ll have plenty of notice. Whether the ecosystem stays unified or forks, your investment in WordPress remains secure.

Focus on what matters: a solid SEO strategy, fast performance, and user-centric content. These fundamentals will serve you well no matter what.

Myth #2: WordPress Is SEO-Friendly By Default

The Reality: WordPress gives you a strong foundation, but it’s not set-it-and-forget-it. Even out of the box, there are configurations to set.

Some SEO needs may require a plugin if your theme doesn’t offer built-in support and you’re not comfortable modifying the code yourself.

Once you’ve got all of the configurations set, and you’ve set up your plugins and configured those, there will still be on-page and content SEO that is done as you’re writing the content.

You can’t install WordPress and then stop thinking about SEO forever.

  • Permalinks And Metadata: I always update permalinks to create clean, descriptive URLs. Titles, meta descriptions, and alt text for images need to be provided and optimized, too.
  • Plugins Are Helpful, Not Magical: I use Yoast to handle metadata defaults and sitemaps efficiently, but even the best plugin is only as good as the strategy behind it. Anything can be misconfigured, so make sure you understand the settings you’re being asked to define.
  • Content Structure Matters: High-quality content and a logical site architecture remain crucial.
  • Themes Can Make or Break SEO: A poorly coded theme can undo the built-in SEO advantages WordPress provides. Many users choose WordPress for the variety of prebuilt themes, but picking one that supports your SEO efforts is critical. A bad theme can tank your rankings – and that’s not WordPress’s fault.

Myth #3: An SEO Plugin Will Guarantee High Rankings

The Reality: SEO plugins are like a compass – they point the way, but you still have to do the hiking.

  • Know The Basics: Plugins can’t replace good keyword research or content strategy. Are you targeting keywords just because they have high search volume, or because they’re terms your users are actually searching for? Most sites make money on conversions, not raw traffic, so attracting the right traffic is essential.
  • Answer User Questions: Do you know what questions your users are asking? Is your content helping them make decisions, use your product, or solve their problems? If not, your content strategy needs work – and that’s not WordPress’s fault.
  • Use Suggestions Wisely: Just because a plugin gives you a green light doesn’t mean your content will automatically rank. Think of the green light as a progress indicator, not a guarantee of success. I use these recommendations as helpful guidelines, but they don’t replace solid market research or a content strategy tailored to your audience. Without that foundation, you could end up with a grammatically correct, SEO-optimized article about a topic no one cares about – or one that blends into an already saturated space. That’s not the plugin’s fault; it’s a reminder that SEO tools support your efforts but can’t create demand or originality for you.

Ultimately, there’s no magic SEO bullet – not in plugins, not in content management systems, and certainly not in shortcuts.

Myth #4: Performance And Speed Don’t Matter That Much

The Reality: Core Web Vitals are an indication of performance, and page speed itself significantly affects user experience and the ability of bots and crawlers to access your site.

But this doesn’t mean hitting specific scores will guarantee a top ranking. Instead, it’s about ensuring your site provides a great experience while optimizing speed and performance.

  • Stay In Control With Manual Updates: Running manual updates ensures you’re not reliant on automatic processes, which can sometimes fail or get delayed. Knowing how to handle updates helps you prevent vulnerabilities from outdated plugins or themes.
  • Remove Unused Plugins And Themes: Unused plugins and themes can create security risks, even if they’re inactive. Regularly cleaning your site minimizes potential attack vectors and keeps your installation lightweight.
  • Run Performance Audits: Audits can help identify performance bottlenecks, detect plugins or scripts that slow down your site, and catch issues before they affect user experience. SEO isn’t set-it-and-forget-it; monitoring your site’s health is crucial for staying competitive.

Myth #5: Content-Length Is More Important Than Quality

The Reality: Search engines care about providing accurate, useful answers and user satisfaction, not arbitrary word counts. It’s baffling that this myth still persists today.

Does this mean that you should stop doing long-form content? No. This means that different types of answers and information naturally call for different amounts of content.

The point is to provide as much quantity (number of words) as is necessary to accomplish the mission. Extra word count for the sake of extra word count is counterproductive.

  • Intent First: I focus on answering user questions directly. There is zero need to add filler details and backstories just to increase the word count. Provide information if the information is necessary and useful to the reader. If your reader is looking for details on how to fix their bicycle chain, they do not need a history lesson on the invention of the bicycle.
  • Avoid Fluff: Write enough to cover the topic thoroughly, but avoid padding your content for length. Even if you’re not adding unnecessary details and information to your article, make sure you avoid fluffing out the sentences to increase word count, too. When I say “fluffing,” I mean taking a sentence that can be perfectly expressed in five words and expanding it to 25 words unnecessarily. For example: “The cat sat quietly” becomes “The small, furry feline creature chose to sit still in an unmoving manner on the comfortable spot by the window.”

Myth #6: Backlinks Are All You Need For SEO Success

The Reality: Backlinks help, but they’re not a magic SEO bullet, just as I mentioned earlier.

It’s like getting glowing recommendations for a restaurant that serves bad food – those referrals won’t save it from bad reviews if the dining experience is poor.

  • Balance Your Efforts: Link-building should be paired with strong technical SEO and high-quality content.
  • Don’t Neglect User Experience: Sites that are hard to navigate or slow to load will struggle, even with strong backlinks.
  • Content Matters: Backlinks can’t compensate for irrelevant or low-value content.
  • Technical SEO Is Critical: Technical SEO plays a vital role in making backlinks work for your site. If search engines can’t easily crawl and index your pages because of poor technical structure, those backlinks won’t be able to pass authority effectively or improve your rankings.

Key Takeaways For WordPress SEO In 2025

SEO has evolved dramatically over the past year, especially with the rise of AI-driven search results, pulling from authoritative sites that provide real value and context.

With Google facing competition from AI-powered engines like Bing’s integration with OpenAI, it’s more important than ever to expand your approach and adapt to the shifting landscape.

1. Ongoing Maintenance Beats Default Settings

  • Regular Auditing Is Essential: Even with WordPress’s built-in features, active maintenance is key. Periodically review your SEO settings, content structure, and performance to ensure your site remains optimized.
  • Understand Plugin Limitations: Plugins offer great guidance but are not a replacement for thoughtful strategy. Pay attention to plugin settings and adapt them to your goals rather than relying solely on default configurations.

2. Make Use Of WordPress Plugins Thoughtfully

  • Enhance Content Optimization: You can certainly use plugins for guidance and to manage some of the technical SEO jobs, but no plugin can do *all* the work, especially when it comes to content. Content can be optimized, but optimized content that isn’t adding value or providing useful information still isn’t going to perform well.
  • Simplify Tasks: AI enhancements are all the rage in WordPress plugins and themes, but don’t let the AI make decisions without your oversight and input – strategy is still a human task.

3. Don’t Rely Solely On Google

  • Broaden Search Strategy: Pay attention to Bing’s integration with AI-powered tools and other emerging engines.
  • New Search Experiences: Be ready to adapt as search engines experiment with interfaces and AI.

4. Prioritize Security And Updates

  • Update Regularly: Keep plugins, themes, and core files updated to avoid vulnerabilities.
  • Remove Unnecessary Plugins: Keep your plugin directory clean to reduce security risks.

To Sum It Up

WordPress remains a powerful tool, but success requires adaptability.

Don’t let internal debates distract you from building a fast, secure, user-friendly site. Focus on proven strategies, stay flexible, and be ready for emerging SEO trends.

Whether it’s Google, Bing, or the next big thing, you’ll be ready. Audit your site’s speed, usability, and content strategy today.

Use plugins and tools to simplify optimization – but never forget the human touch in your SEO strategy.

More Resources:


Featured Image: JuIsIst/Shutterstock

WordPress Leader Mullenweg Silences Joost De Valk via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress, posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) announcing that Joost de Valk was no longer speaking at WordCamp Asia and was persona non grata for having “stabbed” him when he was vulnerable and betraying his confidence. Mullenweg cited statements by de Valk to prove his point, but those statements were presented without their full context, which significantly altered their meaning.

Joost de Valk Removed From WordCamp Asia

Joost de Valk, creator of the Yoast SEO plugin was scheduled to speak at WordCamp Asia on February 21st but was removed from the schedule. He had been scheduled to speak on the topic of marketing WordPress products. A post on X by Matt Mullenweg explaining why he was removed suggests that de Valk was removed on orders by Mullenweg.

Screenshot Of Joost De Valk’s WordCamp Asia Speaker Agenda

Mullenweg: Joost “Stabbed Me When I Was Down”

Matt Mullenweg posted an explanation of why Joost was removed from the WordCamp Asia schedule, with his motivation being to get ahead of any “drama” stirred up by de Valk, although at the time of writing Joost has been silent about the removal on both X and his blog.

Mullenweg posted:

“Before he tries to make more drama about not being at WordCamp Asia, I just wanted to say that I feel @jdevalk stabbed me when I was down, betrayed confidence, tried to take advantage of a situation for personal clout and influence.

I have given him hundreds of hours of my time and more access than almost anyone in the WP community, including admin access on Google Analytics, a marketing leadership position, and more. This trust was betrayed.

His previous contributions do not “make up” for this behavior, nor has he apologized or taken any conciliatory action. This deeply saddens me.

Because of this, I will not interact with him any further or participate with anything he’s involved with, he’s persona non grata.”

The term persona non grata means that a person is unwelcome. It’s use originated in diplomatic contexts but is now used for any situation where a person is no longer welcome.

Out Of Context Citations

Mullenweg followed up with another post with citations of statements  published by Joost de Valk that Mullenweg characterize de Valk is trying to “stage a coup” of WordPress.

He continued:

He’s trying to claim he didn’t want to fork or stage a coup, but wrote:

‘I think it’s time to let go of the cult and change project leadership.’

‘But it’s clear now, that we can no longer have him be our sole leader’

‘I’m already talking to several hosts about this, and would welcome anyone who wants to join these conversations, so we’re not duplicating work.’

‘I’m here, and willing to lead through this transition. I do have the time, the energy and the money needed to fund myself doing it.’

X is a micro-blogging format that limited how much context Mullenweg could post.  It’s helpful to see those statements in context in order to fully understand them.

For example, the quote in which Joost references the “cult” nature of WordPress leadership takes on a different meaning when viewed in its full context.

Here’s the out of context version:

“I think it’s time to let go of the cult and change project leadership.”

The full version of the passage makes it clear that de Valk is merely suggesting the creation of a board (later on detailing that it’s a board with Matt involved in a leadership position).

The full statement:

“I’ve spoken to many slightly outside of our industry over the past months about what was happening and several people, independent of each other, described WordPress as ‘a cult’ to me. And I understand why.

I think it’s time to let go of the cult and change project leadership. I’ve said it before: we need a ‘board’. “

Joost later explains that he isn’t advocating for removal of Matt from leadership but rather giving a voice to all stakeholders, including Matt’s.

He wrote:

“I’m still, to this day, very thankful for what Matt has created. I would love to work with him to fix all this. But it’s clear now, that we can no longer have him be our sole leader, although I’d love it if we could get him to be among the leaders.”

The reality is that Joost was never arguing for a change in leadership. From September to December Joost had largely limited his opinion to suggesting that there should be more transparency about how much of the trademark licensing fee goes to support the WordPress project.  Rather than stabbing Mullenweg when he was down and calling for a coup, Joost was more cautious and circumspect in his public remarks.

It was only in December that he published his “Breaking the Status Quo” blog post where he openly advocated that Mullenweg consider a change in governance that reflected the voices of more than one stakeholder, with Mullenweg still in a position of control. Joost was not leading the call for change, others had already been doing that for months. Joost was lending his (considerable) voice to a movement that was already asking for change in how the WordPress project is governed.

Response To Mullenweg’s Post

Responses to his post were muted because the ability to respond was limited to those he mentions or is following. @arniepalmer responded by explaining that events look far differently from his perspective, pointing out that de Valk was not trying to seize leadership of WordPress away from Mullenweg but discussing a way to expand leadership beyond just one person.

He wrote:

“Matt, I can see how you could be offended by someone who has an opinion on how things in WordPress leadership could be improved and mention that project leadership needs a change. Especially when you have led the project for so many years. However, in my opinion, @jdevalk was engaging in a discussion for a wider solution, not a fork, not a takeover, just a start over with you still being A leader – which is again, in my opinion, essential.

I am saddened that Joost has been excluded from @wcasia2025 as it could have been an opportunity for you and him to discuss options in person. An opportunity to build bridges and even if no solution is reached, the effort has been seen to be made to not exclude those that have differing opinions on how this community driven project moves forward. Criticism of leadership is never a pleasant situation for anyone. I believe a walk back on this is possible and as tickets (including airline and hotels) are already booked for all concerned, booking a meeting room is the smallest of concerns here.”

Joost de Valk Is Ousted And Silenced?

Some time ago, I asked someone how a civil war in his country started. His nutshell explanation was that for decades, citizens, students, and unions had demanded change, but one by one, the government sealed off every avenue for dialogue. Rather than gaining control, it built pressure to the breaking point, leaving no other outlet for change, which eventually came.

Joost de Valk has not made a statement (or drama) about his ouster from WordCamp or his new “persona non grata” status with Mullenweg. It’s unclear what attempting to silence de Valk has accomplished.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Ollyy

How WordPress Hot Nacho Scandal Shapes WP Engine Dispute via @sejournal, @martinibuster

In a recent interview, Matt Mullenweg referenced three scandals and controversies from his past that have been long forgotten to show how it’s possible that the WP Engine scandal will also be forgotten. One of the examples he cited, the Hot Nacho Scandal, led Google to ban WordPress.org, caused Mullenweg to be rebuked by influential tech leaders, and resulted in his shaming in the mainstream media.

The Hot Nacho Scandal, named for a software company called Hot Nacho, was an intense event for Matt Mullenweg that shows what he endured in the past and may help explain his attitude toward the WP Engine scandal today.

Matt Recalls Three Forgotten Controversies

In a part of the interview where Matt downplays the current WP Engine (WPE) dispute he cited three scandals and controversies from the past ten to twenty years to show how he’s made mistakes and also how he has not shied away from an aggressive attention-getting defense of the WordPress open source project and yet with time it’s mostly been forgotten. He cited three controversies as examples of how the WP Engine controversy can also be forgotten with time, perhaps giving an insight into Matt’s thinking about it.

He cited three incidents:

1. The 2005 Hot Nacho Scandal

2. The 2007 Easter Theme Massacre

3. The Chris Pearson Thesis Conflict

The Thesis controversy is relatively recent but the other two go back almost two decades. The Hot Nacho incident was intense not unlike the situation Mullenweg finds himself to day with WP Engine and may explain where he gets his strength to carry on in the fight with WP Engine.

Matt said:

“You know, some of these previous controversies that got mainstream media coverage, you know CNN, I had this Hot Nacho scandal in the first couple years of WordPress or the Thesis fight or the Easter Massacre of themes, like all these things I’m mentioning you probably haven’t heard of.

It used to be like half my Wikipedia page, now it’s not. Today if you go to my Wikipedia page, their PR firm has a whole paragraph about this. I think in 5 years maybe it’ll be a sentence or not even on there at all.

So it’s not my first rodeo. Sometimes you have to fight to protect your open source ideals and the community and and your trademark. “

The Hot Nacho Scandal

The Hot Nacho scandal is named after an SEO software company that paid Matt Mullenweg to host web pages on WordPress.org, which resulted in Google banning the WordPress.org website.

Mullenweg was still working at CNET at the time and working on WordPress on the side when the scandal broke. The news was featured in publications such as Ars Technica, eWeek, MSNBC, Slashdot, and The Register.

A March 31, 2005 article published in The Register featured the lurid article title, “Blog star ‘fesses up to payola spam scam” and describes the shocking transaction that Mullenweg arranged with an SEO software company:

“Matt Mullenweg, founder of the popular open source weblog software WordPress, and CNET employee, has admitted to gaming the web’s search engines by hosting tens of thousands of “articles” that contain hidden, paid-for keywords.

Mullenweg hosted at least 160,000 pieces of “content” on his site wordpress.org which use a cloaking technique to hide keywords such as “asbestos”, “debit consolidation” and “mortgages”. Mullenweg was paid a flat fee by Hot Nacho Inc., which creates software for search engine gamers to use.”

Rebuked By Jason Kottke

Jason Kottke is a widely respected blogger who is known as a pioneer of independent publishing.  So it must have been disappointing to Matt Mullenweg to be the recipient of harsh criticism from someone like Kottke, who wrote:

“WordPress is using its high Page Rank to game Google AdWords. This stinks like last week’s fish. Is WordPress and wordpress.org an open source project like we’ve all been told or is it a company? Either way, contributing to spam noise on the web is annoying.”

Hot Nacho Explains His Side

The founder of the Hot Nacho company explained that they were developing an SEO writing software and wanted to test it on WordPress.org. Matt agreed to accept payment to host the articles, cloaking the links to them so site visitors wouldn’t see them. It wasn’t sophisticated cloaking either. Mullenweg simply used CSS to push the links off-screen.

The Hot Nacho founder published an explanation and begged the world to not harshly judge Mullenweg:

“For my part, I invariably place some advertising on such pages because I’m also not corporate sponsored… It was a blunder that Matt used invisible links to connect to the Articles collection. It wasn’t necessary and I’m sure he regrets having done it that way. But please cut the guy some slack. …Sure, it was a mistake, but it was motivated by the fact that he’s a really good guy.”

Matt Mullenweg himself wrote:

“Knowing what I knew then, I would probably make the same decision; knowing what I know now I wouldn’t even consider it. Not thinking through all the ramifications was a big mistake. So was not having more community dialog from the beginning, which would have caught this earlier. I am extremely sorry for both, and it won’t happen again.”

The upside to the Hot Nacho Scandal was that WordPress received more donations in four days than it had in the previous entire year.

Transformative Event

The Hot Nacho Scandal may have been a formative experience for a young Mullenweg. It exposed him to intense criticism, rebuke and anonymous threats. According to Mullenweg at the time, he said that what others say doesn’t matter as much as what you do and acknowledged that he was developing a thicker skin.

Understanding what the Hot Nacho Scandal was helps put some context to how Mullenweg is approaching the WP Engine Conflict today.

Matt Mullenweg Expects WP Engine Dispute Resolution Soon via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Matt Mullenweg downplayed his dispute with WP Engine, saying it’s not as big a deal as people are making it out to be and shared that he believes it will all be over in a few months.

Matt Compares Himself To Standing Up To Bullies

The podcast host expressed surprise at how harshly Matt went after WP Engine, expressing that he never figured Matt to be the kind of person who would go after someone else so hard, that it didn’t seem to fit his idea of the kind of person Matt Mullenweg was in his mind. Matt responded that he thought that was kind of funny because he’s actually that guy.

The podcast host commented:

“I’ve read a lot about Matt’s work. I don’t know Matt and I’ve listened to him, he doesn’t seem like someone who would ever like insult someone and I was actually surprised that you were going as hard as you were. And I guess your perspective is like, they’re coming after everything I made or they don’t contribute, whatever. But I was actually surprised that you were you you were pissed off and I didn’t think that you would be the type of guy that would come off pissed off…”

Matt smiled as he explained that he feels obliged to stand up for WordPress, like someone standing up to a playground bully.

He explained:

“…so just like a schoolyard bully, you kind of have to stand up for yourself. So it’s kind of funny because you say you don’t think of me as doing this but actually if you look at the history of WordPress there have been maybe four or five times in the history where I had this kind of villain arc … like we had a fight to protect our principles and the sustainability and the future of WordPress.”

Matt Says People Will Forget About WP Engine Dispute

Matt compared the current dispute with WP Engine with previous controversies as a way to note how those were forgotten and one day the WP Engine conflict will also be forgotten.

Mullenweg continued:

“You know, some of these previous controversies that got mainstream media coverage, you know CNN, I had this Hot Nacho scandal in the first couple years of WordPress or the Thesis fight or the Easter Massacre of themes, like all these things I’m mentioning you probably haven’t heard of.

It used to be like half my Wikipedia page, now it’s not. Today if you go to my Wikipedia page, their PR firm has a whole paragraph about this.

I think in 5 years maybe it’ll be a sentence or not even on there at all.”

Mullenweg Downplays WP Engine Dispute

Matt sought to portray WP Engine as not that big a company and ultimately people are making a bigger deal about the dispute than it actually is.

He said:

“And they’re a web host which people think is the largest but actually you know probably the sixth or seventh largest WordPress web host. There’s a lot of bigger ones and they’re a single digit percentage of all the WordPresses in the world. They probably have like 700,000 800,000 or something.

People have made this into a bigger deal than it really is.”

Mullenweg Expects Fight To Be Over In Months

Lastly, Mullenweg expressed the opinion that it was his duty to stand up and fight and that he expected the WP Engine dispute to be behind him within a few months although he did acknowledge that there are many angry people.

The characterization that the dispute will be over within a few months is startling because it seems to suggest that there is something going on behind the scenes or that he would simply prevail and get his way. Mullenweg didn’t explain what he meant by that comment and the podcast hosts didn’t ask him to elaborate.

Mullenweg said,

“So it’s not my first rodeo. Sometimes you have to fight to protect your open source ideals and the community and and your trademark.

By the way, I expect this to resolve in the next few months. Although it’s easy to find like, if you go on Reddit or Twitter, I get a lot of hate.”

At this point Matt explained the conflict from his point of view, painting himself as the victim who was forced to go on the attack, narrating a sequence of events that generally isn’t how most people experienced it. He painted WP Engine’s side as the aggressor and characterized the public rebuke he gave of WP Engine at WordCamp as a “presentation.”

Mullenweg explained:

“Some of the people are uncomfortable with you know us having to to fight protect ourselves. You know WP Engine took some, a very aggressive legal action. So it turned out when we thought we were sort of good faith negotiating they were preparing a legal case to attack us because you know 3 days after I give this presentation they launched this huge lawsuit with Quinn Emanuel it’s kind of like the one of the biggest nastiest law firms.”

Where Were The Hard Questions?

One of the podcast hosts solicited the WordPress communities on Reddit and Twitter for questions that he could ask Matt Mullenweg. The community responded with many questions but the podcast hosts largely refrained from asking those user submitted questions, which to be fair were pretty hard-hitting and inherently presupposed things about Mullenweg.

Watch the podcast interview:

Featured Image by Shutterstock/supercaps

Elementor Rolls Out WordPress AI Site Planner via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Elementor released a free to use standalone AI app called Site Planner that enables users to create a website in a step by step process beginning with the most general concept of the site and ending with a complete website design down to the individual page elements. I gave it a try and was stunned by how easy and fast it was to create a website.

Intuitive Approach To Site Building

Elementor’s application of AI features an intuitive and attractive user interface, everything feels to have been considered so that at no point does one feel the need to read instructions. The questions asked at the start of the process establish a general overview of what the site is about, necessary pages, what the goals are and so on.

Getting started is as simple as clicking a start button, the first hint that building a site with Elementor is going to be easy.

Screenshot Of Start Of AI Site Building App

Collaborative Capabilities

The site design process can be a designer working with a client or multiple stakeholders in a company working together to roll out the next iteration of a website. Elementor’s Site Planner app recognizes this reality and offers users the option to collaborate over Google Meet or proceed alone with the AI as one of the first steps of the process.

Screenshot Of Collaboration Option

Generate A Website Brief

A website brief is a document that outlines the goals and expectations of a web design project. It serves as a road map and plan that guides the stakeholders through the planning and development stages of the project.

Elementor’s AI Site Planner app smartly begins with asking the right questions for putting together a website brief that serves as the backbone of what is to be created.

The site planner generates a website brief describing what the website project is and once that’s approved Elementor creates what it refers to as a sitemap, a site diagram or site architecture diagram that provides a high-level overview of the different pages and how they’re interlinked.

It then generates a wireframe of the entire site that can be zoomed in to edit individual sections of a website at an overview level, to “fine-tune” the layout.

This is how Elementor describes the process:

1 Brief
From Vision -> Brief
Start an AI-led conversation and get your project off the ground. Watch your ideas, descriptions, and notes transform before your eyes into a proper website brief.

2 Sitemap
From Brief -> Sitemap
AI Site Planner instantly maps out all your key pages and creates a complete sitemap in minutes, not hours. Easily shuffle or edit pages to fit your vision.

3 Wireframe
From Sitemap -> Wireframe
Get your first draft in minutes. Watch AI turn your sitemap into content-filled wireframes in a click.

Elementor AI Site Planner

The Elementor AI Site Planner is in my opinion a successful implementation of AI for planning a website. Read the full announcement.

Site Planner by Elementor AI – Generate Professional Sitemaps & Wireframes in Minutes

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Net Vector

WordPress Shakeup Signaled By 3 Recent Events via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Three unrelated things happened in the world of WordPress and Content Management Systems which may point the direction of how content is published on the web. Two of the developments are directly related to WordPress and has the feel of pieces falling into place.

WordPress Parallel Community

There is movement to build a parallel community and infrastructure  to WordPress. The goal is to bring stability to WordPress and ensure that it continues to be the world’s most popular content management system.  Recent events related to the Automattic and Mullenweg dispute with WP Engine have given rise to actions that may in time wrest control of WordPress away from Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.

Alternative WordPress Community: Piece One

This second approach of creating an alternative WordPress community gained major support from GoDaddy in the form of a half million dollar donation to the non-profit The WP Community Collective, a group whose goal is to support an independent WordPress open source ecosystem.

GoDaddy explained:

“GoDaddy …just invested a half-million dollars in the WordPress community through a donation to The WP Community Collective, an initiative focused on funding and empowering WordPress contributors. This monetary support will be directed towards providing financial, operational and promotional support within the greater WordPress community.

The WP Community Collective contribution by GoDaddy… aims to strengthen open source communities by providing resources for designers, developers and other contributors who make the internet work.”

What makes the GoDaddy funding interesting is that one of the investors in GoDaddy, BlackRock, is also an investor in Automattic. BlackRock recently lowered the value of their stake in Automattic, which is said to currently be less than one percent.

Second News: Post Status WordPress Community Becomes A Non-Profit

The second piece of the alternative WordPress community is in the form of an investment made by Joost de Valk in an actual WordPress business community that was founded 15 years ago. Joost is turning it into a non-profit and setting it up with a governance board.

According to the announcement:

“…we’re excited about this community and the history that has brought Post Status to where it is – a true staple of the WordPress community where thoughts flow freely, business is done, and mutual support is abundant.

…Over the past few months, it’s become very clear that Post Status is an enormously important place for the community to come together and discuss all things WordPress. A place with light moderation, but also with true freedom of speech (within the boundaries of treating everyone with respect) and the freedom to have different opinions.

We want to enshrine those freedoms even more. That’s why we (Marieke and myself) will be buying Post Status”

Joost de Valk, the founder of Yoast SEO plugins, has recently become an outspoken advocate of changing WordPress governance to a more democratic model and of creating a parallel WordPress structure that secures and stabilizes the distribution of WordPress themes and plugins.

Third Development: Federated WordPress Directories

There have been ongoing discussions across the WordPress community about decentralizing plugin and theme distribution so that WordPress.org, which is controlled by Automattic and Matt Mullenweg, is no longer the sole source. Decentralization would remove that control by distributing software through multiple channels.

Karim Marucchi (LinkedIn profile), well known in the WordPress community as a leader in enterprise WordPress development, wrote about securing the supply chain in reference to making the availability of plugin and themes secure and trustworthy.

He wrote:

“Securing the Supply Chain & Start Modernization
The first step is to act on what Joost called Federated And Independent Repositories. It is absolutely imperative that we show the world that we have supply chain security. To create a community Plugin, we should immediately form a collaboration group between independent contributors, multiple hosting companies, agencies, and the broader product community within our ecosystems. Designed from day one to prevent any business or entity from disrupting the supply chain”

 Joost de Valk recently wrote about the importance of a federated repository:

“We need to supplement WordPress.org updates with other sources, so that what happened to Advanced Custom Fields, can’t happen again. Lots of hosts are currently experimenting with or already putting in place mirrors of WordPress.org. This creates issues: download and active install statistics are no longer reliable, for instance.

Just having mirrors of WordPress.org also doesn’t really solve the problem of a single party controlling our single update server. For that, we need to make sure that those mirrors federate with each other, and share each others data and, as Karim suggested, allow for independent plugins and themes to be hosted there, outside of the wordpress.org repository. I call this: Federated and Independent Repositories, in short: FAIR.

I’m already talking to several hosts about this, and would welcome anyone who wants to join these conversations, so we’re not duplicating work.”

There is now a project called AspirePress that aims to decentralize WordPress which has been gathering momentum. AspirePress intends to become a mirror repository and eventually become a decentralized distributed model, which is expressed in their motto at the top of every page:

“Decentralize. Distribute. Democratize.”

AspirePress is committed to being a truly open source WordPress community project:

“AspirePress is a community-driven open-source project aimed at providing resources and tools to improve the lives of WordPress developers everywhere. We are focused on building a package mirror to freely distribute plugins and themes to WordPress users, no matter who or where they are.”

AspirePress is an example of people in the WordPress community taking steps to decentralize WordPress so that one entity can’t unilaterally take over someone else’s plugin and replace it with their own as Automattic and Matt Mullenweg did to WP Engine’s highly popular ACF plugin which was completely replaced with a renamed version controlled by Automattic.

Challenges And Evolution Within The WordPress Community

Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were Stanford university students who at a certain point decided that it was in their company’s best interest to bring in a CEO with experience to take over and that’s what happened. Google’s founders still remained involved in the company but CEO seat was filled by someone else who was trustworthy. Google’s one of the largest and most influential companies in the world and is an example of founders who successfully relinquished control to more experienced hands. So it’s not like there is no precedent of a company founder who successfully handed control to someone else in order to grow the company.

There are other examples in the open source community as well:

  • The Joomla! CMS is an open source fork of the Mambo CMS.
  • Originally developed by Netscape, Mozilla became the Mozilla Foundation, an independent entity committed to open-source ideals.
  • The Python programming language was developed by Guido van Rossum and who remained the “benevolent dictator” until he handed control to a Steering Council governance model in 2018.
  • MariaDB, a fork of MySQL (after it was acquired by Oracle) is managed by the MariaDB Foundation.

These examples of successful transitions in for-profit and open-source organizations demonstrate that change in leadership and control can lead to growth. The three developments discussed in this article reflect the gradual shifts occurring in WordPress, a platform that supports thousands of jobs and generates billions in revenue worldwide. Stakeholders invested in WordPress’s stability may see these developments as steps toward that goal.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Black Salmon

Should You Still Use WordPress? via @sejournal, @alexmoss

The last year has been quite eventful within the WordPress ecosystem, marked by discussions and disputes that have prompted some to question the long-term sustainability of the platform and consider exploring alternative solutions.

However, when you dive deeper into these concerns, they pale in comparison to WordPress’s enduring strengths as a product and its unmatched versatility in the CMS space.

Market Share Is Sustained

The first version of WordPress was released on May 27, 2003. Its unique architecture, combined with it being open source, saw a surge in popularity – now dominating (as of December 2024) 43.7% of the CMS market share.

This growth has also been steady despite the emergence of other CMSs including Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. But none of these are open-source.

Not “Just Another” CMS

WordPress’ unique architecture, which allows plugin and theme extendibility, combined with the power of open-source, means it can scale far beyond the blogging platform it was originally.

This means themes could be built for end-users without them having to necessarily understand HTML or CSS and plugins made by third-party developers that could extend and scale the core platform in limitless ways.

Over the years, I’ve built so much with WordPress, including forums, job boards, educational and learning-based portals, ecommerce sites, communities, comparison engines, and scaled themes.

Our clients have ranged from people performing small side hustles and launching startups to managing hundreds of installs on a custom-built server for scaling sites for different global regions and building custom APIs using WordPress to scale activity.

No other CMS provides this flexibility – with any alternatives only doing so with a huge cost and technical debt.

Extendibility [Mostly] Without Limits

While I’ve been involved in building many things with WordPress, the concept of third-party plugins paved the way for trusted extendability within the CMS.

The emergence of free and premium plugins in the WordPress ecosystem has created its own niche, with over 59,000 free plugins available within the official directory – and this does not include the thousands of plugins available away from the repo.

When I discovered WordPress in 2009, I realized it wasn’t just a blogging platform – and, more importantly, it was the most cooperative to SEO best standards. I published my first of numerous plugins in October 2010.

In 2013, I co-founded an agency with WordPress development as one of its core offerings where we have worked on thousands of WordPress sites. Whenever we received an inquiry or pitched for anything to build, WordPress was always the CMS that provided the best solution.

It’s also so easy to get started with WordPress, and I advise anyone who wants to extend their knowledge to do so through experimentation (I talked about it at BrightonSEO a couple of months ago)

A Truly Passionate Community

Another reason I loved WordPress was when I discovered that the community’s massive support helped the CMS progress.

Like the SEO community, the WordPress community is extremely engaging and supportive, not just to help solve issues and help develop the CMS overall, but also there’s a lot of support for people’s professional and personal development.

Away from the extensive resources that WordPress provides through its documentation and forums, the WordPress community thrives all year round through its WordCamp meetups worldwide and participates in other communities, including WordPress chat and PostStatus. There are also numerous podcast series to follow, including Do the Woo, WP Product Talk, and WP Builds.

This community is extremely supportive and resilient to changes, which in turn helps the development of WordPress core, which has been instrumental in shaping the future of website creation, production, and improvement.

The community also gives back in ways I haven’t seen in other verticals.

You Own Your Site And Data

You’d think this would be obvious, but it isn’t. Remember, WordPress is open source. Not only does this mean that the core product is completely free and supported by the community, as already mentioned, but it is also your property.

To now compare this to Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace – these other CMS platforms own your site!

While people may believe there are inherent risks with WordPress, I’d ask you what would happen to your site if, for example, Shopify were to close business tomorrow.

The answer is simple – your site would cease to exist. Then what? If WordPress were to stop development forever from today, you’d still be in the same position and still have your website, content, and data – all of it. What do the other CMSs offer?

As another layer of freedom and risk mitigation, the choice of using WordPress as a CMS is also independent of where you choose to host it.

If for whatever reason you want to migrate your site from one host to another you have the freedom to do so whereas closed source platforms not only own the website you produce with them, but also the server where it resides.

Do The Recent WP ‘Disagreements’ Present A Risk To WordPress?

TLDR – no. The situation does not affect the functionality of WordPress as a CMS. WordPress remains a stable, reliable, and widely used platform, with no indication that its long-term sustainability is at risk. The CMS itself is unaffected and continues to thrive. If you want to read more about the current discussions and disagreements impacting WP leadership, you can read articles such as this and this to gain more insight.

Other Options?

Still skeptical about WordPress? OK, what are your other options?

While other CMS platforms can perhaps be a good alternative to a “standard informational site”, or a site that has no customization requirements at all from the normal out-of-the-box functionality (which eventually happens for every site that starts to scale in any way), you have to make very informed decisions about whether it’s actually worth it – and what the problem is that you believe you’re solving.

Some questions I’d ask myself:

  • Is the CMS open source? If not, what do I own?
  • Is there a strong form of community and support?
  • Does it play nicely with third-party connections and APIs you intend to use?
  • Can you scale the site in the way you want?
  • Can you truly control output on the front end?
  • Does it adhere to SEO best practices?

If any of the answers above are a “no” then you need to understand the risks of those issues before considering any migration, as you may find that the risks of the alternative outweigh anything that WordPress would.

A couple of months ago, I decided to research several open-source CMSs to see if any other platform could compete with WordPress and its capabilities. Unsurprisingly, nothing came close.

TL;DR

WordPress is here to stay and is still the CMS I’d advise in 99% of cases.

It’s safe, supported, robust, future-proof, and open source.

Whilst other CMS platforms can offer some solutions to smaller or simpler sites, I am yet to be truly convinced that they pose any considerable risk to their future or their role in the future of websites.

More resources: 


Featured Image: Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock

Matt Mullenweg Hires New Lawyer In Fight Against WP Engine via @sejournal, @martinibuster

A legal document filed in federal court formally notifies that Automattic and Matt Mullenweg have added new representation, a lawyer who has previously represented Meta and Facebook. The new documentation is formally called NOTICE of Appearance. There may be an additional legal filing that may indicate that the previous legal team may no longer be representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.

New Attorney

A legal form was filed titled “NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic.” Rosemarie Theresa Ring is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, one of the top law firms in the United States.

Gibson Dunn was founded in 1890 and has represented George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore legal fight over votes in Florida, Apple, Inc. in an infringement lawsuit against Samsung and also has represented Meta and Facebook.

The law firm that has previously represented Automattic and Matt Mullenweg in their defense in the WP Engine federal lawsuit are Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, a prestigious international law firm specializing in litigation. According to a citation in Wikipedia, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan have been recognized as a top tier legal firm for intellectual property, patent, trademark, and copyright law, as well as other categories.

The Court Listener website has two entries:

“77 Jan 24, 2025
NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic Inc., Matthew Charles Mullenweg (Ring, Rosemarie) (Filed on 1/24/2025) (Entered: 01/24/2025)

Jan 24, 2025
Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney”

The legal documents aren’t yet available to view but this article will be updated when they are.

What Does It Mean?

It’s unclear if the previous legal representation is still representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg as part of their legal team as defendants in the WP Engine lawsuit. But it does appear that the defendants are preparing to fight back with some seriously experienced legal representation.

How Use WordPress Multisite To Create a Website Subdirectory via @sejournal, @atuljindal01

WordPress Multisite is a feature for managing the structure and multiple sites from a single WordPress installation.

In this article, I’ll share the step-by-step approach to creating a new WordPress website or converting an existing WordPress website into a WordPress Multisite.

But before that, let’s understand the basics of WordPress Multisite.

What Is WordPress Multisite?

WordPress Multisite enables you to create and run multiple websites on the same WordPress installation. It is like having one central hub to control an entire network of sites.

Websites on a Multisite network share core files and databases, making it easy for network administrators to manage all websites from one WordPress user account.

The reason why businesses opt for Multisite is because it helps save both time and money. Plus, it takes less server space than separate installations.

To know WordPress Multisite better, let’s look at some of its significant features:

  • Centralized management: Allows you to control all your websites from one single dashboard.
  • Shared themes and plugins: Use your website anywhere after you install these shared themes and plugins.
  • User management: Enables you to create super admins to oversee the entire network.
  • Domain mapping: Facilitates you assigning unique domains to each site in your network.

How Does WordPress Multisite Work?

To understand the functionality of WordPress Multisite, you need to understand WordPress user roles and how they differ. By default, a standard WordPress site has five user roles:

  • Administrator (site Admin).
  • Editor.
  • Author.
  • Contributor.
  • Subscriber.

However, for WordPress Multisite, there is one more user role called super admin. There are six user roles for WordPress Multisite:

  • Super Admin (own/control – all sites of multisite network).
  • Administrator (site Admin) – controls one website of the network.
  • Editor.
  • Author.
  • Contributor.
  • Subscriber.

For a regular WordPress website, the site admin has administrative access to only one website. As there is just one website on the network, the admin controls only that website.

Site admins can add users, but only to the websites they administer. They cannot install WordPress plugins or themes, but they can choose which ones to activate or deactivate.

However, in WordPress Multisite, the super admin has access to more than one website.

The super admin, also known as the network admin, controls a whole network of websites and has activated Multisite initially.

They also have access to every website’s network admin setting and dashboard within the network. Super admins can also map custom domains.

Pros And Cons

After weighing the pros and cons of WordPress Multisite, it will become easy for you to decide if it aligns with your specific needs and technical expertise.

The Pros

  • Easy To Manage: With Multisite installation, you can control multiple sites from one admin panel. There is no need to switch and log each site separately.
  • Efficient Updates: You can apply core updates, plugin updates, and theme changes across all your websites with just a few clicks.
  • Easier Delegation: WordPress Multisite enables you to assign site-level admins to network sites to make it easy to share site management tasks.
  • Scalability: The best part about Multisite websites is that you can scale it as your business grows, as unlimited WP subsites are allowed under one URL. It will also enable you to delete the old ones that are not required without impacting the rest of the network.
  • Targeting Marketing And Branding: Multisite websites let you create tailored experiences for different geographic regions, product categories, and customer segments. For instance, if you’re doing SEO and link building, you can promote content in a much more geographically or niche-relevant way.
  • Greater Control: When you use multisite, you have greater control over using plugins and themes for each site. This lessens the risk of bad plugins or themes, which can compromise the security or performance of the entire network.
  • SEO-Friendly: WordPress multisite can help with SEO as well. You can properly structure your website and content for languages, locations, topics, products/services, etc. Having a well-structured website helps Google to understand your website easily. Also, you can track and understand which part of the site is performing well (even for Google algorithmic updates) and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

The Cons

Here are some of the drawbacks of using multisite:

  • Performance Issues: One of the major challenges with Multisite is that users may face performance issues in situations when one site gets adversely impacted; it affects the other sites as well.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Multisite has its own set of complexities. If you are not a technical expert, the initial setup and management can be quite challenging for you.
  • Limited Plugin Compatibility: Not all plugins are compatible with a Multisite setup, which can limit your options. In fact, various premium plugins may require a license per subsite, which can lead to an increase in cost.
  • Backup And Migration Challenges: Migrations can be challenging as every site shares one database. Migrating one site off your network is very challenging; therefore, ensure that you have a solid backup strategy in place.

Use Cases: When To Use A WordPress Multisite

Here are some use cases when using a WordPress Multisite is a good idea:

Franchise Businesses

If you have a franchise business, opting for Multisite can be one of the best decisions.

Every franchise will get a separate website, but you will have control over the look and functionality of all of them.

Subway, McDonalds, Dominos, and many other brands use this to give every location a unique online presence while ensuring brand consistency.

Learning Management System (LMS) Websites

Imagine a university where every department needs its own website. Using Multisite, offers each department its own space while maintaining brand consistency and centralized management.

LMS websites are created for various schools and universities, but they have a similar structure and functionality.

Multi-Language Websites

WordPress Multisite can be a great idea for businesses that target a global audience. It also offers a solution for managing multiple language versions of a website.

Every language gets its own site, which makes it easier to manage translations and localized content.

Business Or Ecommerce Sites

Using WordPress Multisite is a perfect option for ecommerce sites. It creates different versions of the same service or product website.

For instance, you can create different sites on the same product line, accounting for differences in language and culture. Furthermore, you can delegate network administrator control to business representatives in every region.

Social Commerce Integration

WordPress Multisite can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to leverage social commerce.

By creating separate subsites for different product categories or target audiences, businesses can tailor their offerings and marketing messages to specific demographics.

Additionally, plugins can be integrated to allow for direct product sales from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, creating a seamless shopping experience for customers.

A Multisite installation could be useful for government sites, SaaS businesses, educational organizations, magazines and media publications, ecommerce, etc., or simply where you want to create a well-structured website with an easy approach.

When Using A WordPress Multisite Is Not Recommended

Here are some of the use cases that explain when you should think twice about using WordPress Multisite capability:

1. Have Different Website Requirements

WordPress Multisite is not recommended for websites with varied functionalities, structures, plugins, or purposes.

For example, if you have three types of businesses that provide healthcare, LMS, and SaaS services, Multisite won’t help.

2. Can’t Afford Sufficient Hosting

WordPress Multisite is resource-intensive, especially when your business grows.

It requires substantial hosting plans, as inadequate hosting can lead to slow load times across all your sites. To avoid this, you should ensure that you have a WordPress Multisite optimized hosting for your website.

3. Security Risks

All the websites in a multisite network share a single database, potentially compromising data isolation. This shared structure might also not comply with industry-specific regulations.

Thus, if you have security concerns, it might not be an ideal choice for you.

4. Don’t Have A Permanent Programmer

If you run a small company without a dedicated programmer or IT team, opting for Multisite might get you in more trouble than it’s worth.

Multisite demands more technical know-how to set up and maintain, so if any issues arise, they will be challenging to diagnose and fix without expert help.

Steps To Create A WordPress Multisite

Before you start creating a WordPress Multisite, you need to choose a domain structure for Multisite – either a subdomain or subfolder structure.

Example of Sub-domain structure:
blog.website.com/
uk.website.com/
Examples of Sub-folder structure:
website.com/blog/
website.com/uk/

WordPress Multisite also allows using a different domain for each website of the network. For example, you can use the website.us domain for the USA-targeting website and website.ca for the Canada website.

You can follow this guide to set up domain mapping for your WordPress website.

Once you have these essentials, you can start with the process of creating a WordPress Multisite.

Step 1: Enable The WordPress Multisite Network Feature

To enable this, you need to install a new WordPress as you normally do. You need to enable a WordPress Multisite network feature on an existing WordPress website if you want to convert it into a Multisite.

But before that, you should completely back up your website.

Follow these steps to enable the Multisite feature:

  1. Set up an FTP connection to your website or Cpanel > file manager and edit the wp-config.php file.
  2. Navigate to the wp-config.php file. Scroll down to the bottom and add this code before the /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */. line:
/* Multisite */ 
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Save the changes and close the wp-config.php file.

Step 2: Setting Up The Multisite Network

deactivate-plugins-bulk-Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Before doing anything, you need to deactivate all of your plugins to complete the process.

Then go to Tools > Network Setup page.

create-network multisite Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Now, you should choose between subdomains (e.g., site1.yourdomain.com) or subdirectories (e.g., yourdomain.com/site1) for the Multisite structure. Then Click “Install.”

Now, WordPress will show you some code snippets to add to your website’s wp-config.php and .htaccess files.

wp multisite enable-networkScreenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Step 3: Edit The wp-config.php And .htaccess Files

You need to edit the wp-config.php file and add the code just below the line (code) you added before.

Then, edit the .htaccess file and replace the existing code with the new code of the WordPress Multisite installation.

Don’t forget to save the changes.

After finishing it, you need to re-login to your website to access the Multisite network.

Step 4: Configure Network Settings

After logging in to your website, go to Network Dashboard to add new sites and change network settings. For this, go to My Sites > Network Admin > Dashboard.

multisite network-dashboardScreenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Settings and other things are the same as those for the normal WordPress installation.

It’s done. This is how you can create your first site in your Multisite network.

If you want to convert your existing website into a Multisite, then here are the steps.

How To Convert An Existing Site To Multisite?

By default, WordPress allows you to convert an existing WordPress site into a Multisite sub-domain only.

If you want to convert a WordPress Subdomain Multisite, then you can follow the above-mentioned steps.

But if you want to convert an existing site into a Multisite Subfolder, then follow these steps:

(Pro tip: Take a complete website backup before starting the process.)

Step 1: Enable The WordPress Multisite Network Feature

You need to edit the wp-config.php file and add this code:

/* Multisite */ 
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Before the line: /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

Step 2: Deactivate All Plugins

deactivate-plugins-bulk-Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024

To do this, go to Dashboard > Plugins. Then select all and deactivate them.

Step 3: Network Setup

You need to refresh the page to see changes.

Then, go to Appearance > Theme Editor > Theme Functions to edit the functions.php file, and add the following code at the end.

add_filter( 'allow_subdirectory_install', create_function( '', 'return true;' ) );

Save it.

Now, you can find and choose the subfolder option for your Multisite. To do this, go to Tools > Network setup.

create-network multisite Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Then, choose the Subfolders option, and click the Install button.

Step 4: Enable The Network

You need to add the code shown by WordPress to the wp-config.php and .htaccess files, as shown above in Step 3 of creating a new multisite.

Once you have done it, you can create your first subfolder site. For this:

add-new-sites wp multisiteScreenshot from WordPress, December 2024

Go to My Sites > Network Admin > Sites.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully converted your WordPress site to a Multisite.

WordPress Multisite FAQs

What is the difference between WordPress Multisite vs. managing separate installations?

Here are the major differences:

  • In separate installations, you have full control and customization for each site, whereas WordPress Multisite offers limited individual site customization.
  • WordPress Multisite has a centralized dashboard for all sites, whereas separate installations demand individual management for each site.
  • Multisites generally use server resources more efficiently; on the contrary, for separate installations, each site uses its own resources.

What are the best tips for managing WordPress Multisite?

Some of the best tips for managing WP multisite are:

  • Choose network-wide themes carefully.
  • Implement two-factor authentication.
  • Set up regular, automated backups of your entire network.

Wrapping Up

Setting up a WordPress Multisite network is like creating a digital theme park where visitors can effortlessly explore all your attractions.

Converting a WordPress site to a Multisite subdirectory is a powerful solution whether you are managing multiple brands, creating a network of niche sites, or simply planning for future growth.

Use this guide to create a WordPress Multisite for your business.

More Resources:


Featured Image: VectorMine/Shutterstock