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Help! Advice Needed on Site Structure

by Sean Fry
3 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Anyone here familiar with eHow.com's site structure?

If you go to ehow.com, you see that they've set up different "divisions" of ehow. So, they've got home, mom, style, food, tech, money and health. If you click on any of those links, it takes you to what appears to be a seperate eHow "site" under a new title. So, "home" then becomes ehow.com/ehow-home/, "mom" becomes ehow.com/ehow-mom/ and so on.

I presume they did this to help organize the ridiculous amount of content they create. Richard Rosenblatt claims they create 5,000 new pieces of content per day.

Anyway, I quite like that site structure and I'd like to be able to do something similar with one of my own sites. I'd like to create about 4 or 5 different "divisions" of a site I'm building.

Now, if I am using wordpress to build the site, what would be the best way to do it? I'd like to use the same theme for each 'division,' but I'd want each one to have their own color schemes and unique menus. I use canvas.

Should I simply install wordpress in different directories...4 or 5 of them? In other words, install wordpress in sitename.com/category/, then install it in sitename.com/category2/, etc?

Or is there a better way to do it? Something I'm missing?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
#advice #needed #site #structure
  • Profile picture of the author David V
    Originally Posted by Sean Fry View Post

    Should I simply install wordpress in different directories...4 or 5 of them? In other words, install wordpress in sitename.com/category/, then install it in sitename.com/category2/, etc?
    Or is there a better way to do it? Something I'm missing?
    Hey Sean,
    You don't need to install WordPress multiple times.
    I did not look at ehow, however your explanation was pretty good.

    You could create the "/ehow-home" and "/ehow-mom", etc.... as CPT's, custom post types and taxonomies.

    As far as uniquely styling each one different, the same theme is fine, just use different templates for each type then you can simply choose the template on the edit screens (for both pages and posts can be done). This will allow you to have unique styling and different menus. You will have to custom code this stuff though.

    Canvas is a good base, so your theme is good. WooThemes are well coded and easy to work with.

    There's much more detail to this, but just a quick idea for you to look into.
    Your looking at a fair amount of setup and customization, but it sounds like it could be worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveWF
    Sure you can do what you're suggesting and it's what most people
    do with their sites. It helps the user to find the content they want.

    In Wordpess you would use 'Categories' or if your site gets really
    big you can have 'Sub Categories' (categories under categories)
    but just be careful it doesn't go to deep and get too ugly and
    complicated.

    Good luck

    Steve
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author Sean Fry
      Thanks guys.

      After doing some research on this, looks like what I was looking for is the "multi-site" wordpress feature. It allows you to run seperate blogs under one wordpress installation, using either directories or subdomains. Awesome feature.
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