Navigating a multisite network

One WordPress login can belong to several websites. Each site still has its own dashboard, content, and user roles.

← All website guides

Site dashboard: manages one website’s pages, media, menus, and users. Most everyday work happens here.

Network Admin: manages the WordPress network. This is for Super Administrators and includes network-level sites, users, themes, and plugins. A site Administrator is not automatically a Super Administrator.

1. Open My Sites in the top toolbar and choose the intended site’s Dashboard, if that menu is available.
2. Alternatively, open Dashboard → My Sites. Each listed site has Visit and Dashboard links.
3. Use Visit to view the public website, or Dashboard to manage it.
4. Before changing anything, verify both the site title and address. Similar names may refer to a live website, a staging copy, or an archive.

The Primary Site setting on the My Sites screen sets a user preference. It does not move content or grant access to more websites.

• Pages, menus, and media are generally managed within the selected site.
• One person can have different roles on different sites.
• Adding a user to one site does not automatically make them an editor or administrator on all other sites.
• Plugins or custom network tools can change sharing behaviour; check with 52Hz Media before assuming content or files are shared.

Example: Alex can be an Editor on “Main Website” and a Subscriber on “Community Program”. Alex’s login is the same, but their permissions depend on the selected site.

Ask a site or network administrator to check your membership and role for that site. Confirm you used the intended account and accepted any invitation. Missing menus can reflect permissions rather than a fault with WordPress.

Super Administrators may use My Sites → Network Admin to manage the network. Creating a new network user is different from assigning that user a role on a particular site. For ordinary access changes, use the target site’s Users → Add User workflow in Users, roles & site access.

Network settings, shared plugin changes, and theme changes can affect multiple sites. Coordinate those with 52Hz Media rather than changing them during routine page editing.

The public website is what visitors read. The site dashboard is where staff manage one site. The page editor is a focused workspace for a particular page; it may hide the usual left dashboard menu. View Pages returns you from that editor to the page list.

The top toolbar’s site name and your browser’s address help identify your current location. Do not rely only on a familiar logo, because related sites or staging copies may use the same branding.

Open Dashboard, then My Sites to find the websites available to your account. On that screen choose the intended site’s Dashboard link and verify its address.

1. Finish the current change and confirm that it saved, or deliberately leave it as a draft.
2. Open Dashboard → My Sites when the dashboard menu is available.
3. Find the intended website and choose Dashboard, not Visit, when you want to edit.
4. Check the destination address and site name again after the new dashboard loads.
5. Open Pages, Media, Users, or the specialised tool on that site.

If the toolbar’s My Sites shortcut takes you somewhere unexpected, return to your known dashboard and use its My Sites screen. Bookmark the approved dashboard addresses you use regularly, using descriptive bookmark names such as “Main site — Dashboard”.

You can keep more than one dashboard open in separate browser tabs, but finish one task at a time. Before saving or granting access, verify the tab’s address rather than assuming the last site you used is still active.

Suppose an organisation has “Main Website” and “Community Program”. A staff member needs to update the main contact page and a programme page.

First open Main Website’s dashboard, edit its contact page, save, and verify the public page. Then switch to Community Program’s dashboard and repeat the process there. Editing a contact detail in the first site does not guarantee that a separately stored detail in the second site changes too.

If both sites display content provided by a shared network tool, confirm that tool’s behaviour with 52Hz Media. Do not assume every similar-looking section is either shared or independent.

Adding someone as a Subscriber does not automatically grant every kind of private-content access. Hiding a page from a menu does not make it private. A membership plugin can add its own rules, so confirm restricted-content requirements separately from staff editing permissions.

• Pages: information pages such as About, Contact, and service descriptions.
• Media: files available through that site’s media workflow.
• Appearance: design and navigation tools, usually for administrators.
• Users: membership and roles for the current site, when your account permits it.
• Settings: site-level behaviour; avoid changing these as part of ordinary content editing.
• Specialised tools: Events, Albums, Documents, and Forms manage the entries displayed by those features.

A missing menu does not necessarily indicate an installation problem. Roles, network policy, and custom dashboard settings can hide tools that the account does not need.

A staging site is typically used to prepare or test changes. An archive may preserve an older version. Neither label guarantees how the site is configured or who can view it. Use the addresses and workflow supplied by your administrator.

Do not assume changes on staging will appear on the live website automatically. Ask who approves and publishes or transfers the work. A content transfer can also affect recent live changes, so coordinate it instead of copying over a site on your own.

1. Confirm you are signed in with the intended account.
2. Check whether the administrator actually added that existing account to the target site and selected a role.
3. Complete any outstanding invitation using the approved email instructions.
4. Open the approved dashboard address and note the exact message if access is denied.
5. Ask for the required site role rather than requesting blanket network administration.

When requesting help, include the target site, your username, the task you need to perform, and the error message. Do not send your password.

Next: users, roles & site access → · WordPress multisite reference