Title: Moving to Multisite – Question Last modified: August 30, 2016 --- # Moving to Multisite – Question * [Miroslav Glavić](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miroslavglavic/) * (@miroslavglavic) * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/) * I am thinking of moving to Multisite, here is the background that you need to know. * I have unlimited domains on my hosting. * domain names below are just examples. * For the longest I would have * cutedog.com with it’s own hosting and cutedog.org/cutedog.net/cutedog.ca as redirects to cutedog.com * Now think of that times 20. 20 .com domains with their own separate hosting accounts and their corresponding .org/.net/.ca pointing to their corresponding .com. * Since I used to pay $4.95 per month for 2 years in advance ($135.33 including taxes), $135.33 x 20 = $2,700. This doesn’t count the domain prices. * I decided to cancel all the hosting accounts but one. Keep cutedog.com as an add-on domain with that one hosting account (cancel cutedog.com’s hosting account) and have cutedog.ca/.org/.net redirect to cutedog.com. * Repeat the process 18-19 more times. * So all those domains are sitting on one’s hosting account. I am saving lots of money. I like to pay 2 years in advance for hosting. * So from what I have above…what if I do * one.com (being the main (and only) hosting account). cutedog.one.com representing cutedog.com and cutedog.org/.net/.ca redirecting to it? * Thus keeping ONE Multisite installation or keep cutedog and the other .com domains as add-on to one.com? * I would want people to see cutedog.com but really they are going to cutedog.one. com. I think that is domain mapping, right? * when each .com domain had their own hosting, they had their own WordPress installation(“ standard” installation not MS). * I got rid of hosting, but now I am thinking of putting them all into MS installation that way I save time on updates for themes/plugins/core. * If let’s say cutedog.com and cuteparrot.com both have same theme and I change the footer.php, I would be changing the footer for both cutedog AND cuteparrot, correct? Right now with their own separate installation (and both having same theme), I can change the footer.php from cutedog without affecting cuteparrot, correct? * How would Akismet work in multisite? all those domains have their own Akismet key thing. Would they keep their own key thing or one whole key for the Network? * I am thinking of this way too much. Help me out. Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * [Axel13](https://wordpress.org/support/users/axel13/) * (@axel13) * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/#post-6458417) * > Thus keeping ONE Multisite installation or keep cutedog and the other .com > domains as add-on to one.com? * For SEO it’s better not to have the same content on different domains. So, I’d redirect rather than making it an addon. * > I would want people to see cutedog.com but really they are going to cutedog. > one.com. I think that is domain mapping, right? * That’s correct. * > If let’s say cutedog.com and cuteparrot.com both have same theme and I change > the footer.php, I would be changing the footer for both cutedog AND cuteparrot, > correct? * Indeed. * > Right now with their own separate installation (and both having same theme), > I can change the footer.php from cutedog without affecting cuteparrot, correct? * Obviously. If you want to achieve this on a multisite you can create a [child theme](https://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes) and add the footer.php to it. * > How would Akismet work in multisite? all those domains have their own Akismet > key thing. Would they keep their own key thing or one whole key for the Network? * I use [anti-spam](https://wordpress.org/plugins/anti-spam/) instead, so I didn’t try it, but [it’s said](http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/how-to-use-akismet-on-wordpress-multisite-with-1-license-key/) that you can add the key to your wp-config.php. * `define('WPCOM_API_KEY','your-key');` * Thread Starter [Miroslav Glavić](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miroslavglavic/) * (@miroslavglavic) * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/#post-6458425) * Sorry but I should of mentioned… Cutedog, cuteparrot, one.com are all different contents. Nothing to do with each other. * [Axel13](https://wordpress.org/support/users/axel13/) * (@axel13) * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/#post-6458430) * Ah, my bad… I think I’m getting what you mean… To make the different domains work with one multisite, you need to add an A record to your DNS with the server IP as value. Maybe that’s what happens when you create an addon domain though, I’m not very familiar with that. Best read the [domain mapping instructions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/installation/)( if that’s the plugin you’re planning to use). * Thread Starter [Miroslav Glavić](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miroslavglavic/) * (@miroslavglavic) * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/#post-6458452) * A lot of what you said is like you speaking a foreign language. * Domain Mapping and MultiSite networks are not my best skills. The closest I tried to MultiSite is using directories. I never used subdomains. * I would want cutedog.com to show cutedog.one.com instead of just forward to cutedog. one.com Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘Moving to Multisite – Question’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 4 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Miroslav Glavić](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miroslavglavic/) * Last activity: [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-to-multisite-question/#post-6458452) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics