Designing an Effective Multisite Architecture: How to Get it Right

A multisite architecture offers global and multi-brand businesses two key benefits: the ability to rapidly launch new ventures and cost-effective enhancement of the digital customer experience. This setup allows multiple websites to showcase different products, target various regions or run specific marketing campaigns, all managed centrally with a single code base while allowing customization for individual sites. However, to leverage multisite architecture benefits fully, an organization must plan carefully and ensure alignment with business needs.

Let’s explore a few essential aspects of designing effective multisite architecture.

Know the Kind of Multisite Architecture You Need

Before adopting a multisite setup, a business must understand how to select the one that best fits its needs. There are three types of multisite architecture:

1. Clone. All sites share the same look, layout, components, content types, features and functionalities, with only minor branding differences. This is common for multiregional or multilingual sites that replicate the base website in different languages without other changes.

2. Feature Flexible. Sites share a base template but require different features. This complexity demands effective change management and communication among contributors.

3. Snowflake. These sites feature unique modifications, including distinct theming and back-end development. As a result, they often require their own specialized architecture that may change frequently. Typically, the “snowflake” site is the organization’s main website, housing key digital business functions such as ecommerce or customer support.

To choose the best multisite solution, first assess your goals. At Material, we bring together teams from various parts of the organization to ensure alignment on how the sites will interact. This leads to a well-informed decision that benefits all stakeholders.

Build the Features Matrix

Most multisite implementations involve a base platform with shared modules for use across different sites, providing a cohesive and efficient solution. The goal is to build this platform in a manner that requires individual sites to do as little customization as possible. To achieve this, mapping out a features matrix is critical.

The features matrix lists and compares the features required by different websites. To ensure accuracy, this process should involve all brand teams working together. Here’s how to proceed.

• Gather Requirements. List all desired features across websites.

• Compare Needs. Identify the unique features each site needs. A features matrix helps define your base platform and the features you need to build.

• Prioritize Development. After you’ve built the base platform, consisting of the elements required by all the sites, prioritize feature development by how many sites need each feature. Build the key features needed by most sites before addressing the features required by fewer sites.

You can use this approach to map not only features but also shared resources across all sites, giving you a consolidated view of:

• The required customizations from each site or stakeholder.

• The list of required integrations across different sites.

• The set of shared and unique features and widgets that need to be built and can be reused across sites.

• The kind of access and permissions that need to be provided to the teams managing individual sites.

Plan the Information Architecture

With multiple websites now coming under the same umbrella, it becomes important to understand the hierarchy and information architecture at play — this includes the existing structure of relationships and how to preserve them within the new setup. Otherwise your setup will lack consistency and standardization across the sites. The following steps will help you plan the information architecture.

• Create a list of categorizations and classifications currently used by the various websites.

• Perform an audit to consolidate most of the infrastructure. Evaluate what can be standardized, then document it to create consistency in how individual brand teams work in terms of website updates, content publishing and creating a unique experience on their site.

• Create a spreadsheet of all content types, taxonomies and metadata needed and map them to centralized structures if they are to be reused.

Think Through User Access

While multisite architecture aims to simplify processes and maintain brand consistency, governance through user access and permissions is crucial. Key considerations include:

• Defining who can access and modify specific elements,

• Allowing website teams to create pages or websites and adjust functionalities within their scope,

• Ensuring users on one site cannot edit or publish content on another, and

• Restricting access to the base platform’s core components.

While these are basic examples, multisite architecture can include more detailed access controls based on team operations. It’s essential to carefully plan and implement access levels for different users within your architecture.

Plan Your Multisite Architecture Rollout

The execution of your multisite rollout requires as much careful planning as the steps preceding it. Below is a simplified approach.

1. Build the Base Site. Allocate most of the project timeline to creating the reusable base site.

2. Stage and Sync. Develop processes for editorial and deployment workflows, centrally managing content and updates in a staging environment before synchronizing across sites.

3. Enable Editorial Access. Give the editorial teams access to start adding content, allowing site-building and content creation to run parallel.

4. Provide consistent training for website teams on operating within the multisite architecture, leveraging benefits and avoiding inefficient processes.

These steps ensure a streamlined and effective multisite architecture setup. However, executing this process can be complex, and in-house teams may struggle with technical decisions, leading to costly mistakes.

Work with an Experienced Technology Partner

The Material team has extensive experience with delivering successful Drupal multisite architectures to global enterprises. We understand the business and technological nuances of large-scale multisite setups and can guide you through the discovery, development and deployment phases.

Looking to consolidate your digital presence with a multisite architecture? Start the conversation today.