As your agency grows, the maintenance and updates it needs to face will grow as well. Managing a single WordPress site for a client is not an especially time-consuming task. WordPress’s intuitive, easy-to-use interface makes updating plugins and themes a simple process.
However, all of those tasks add up. If you have twenty clients with WordPress websites that need regular management, maintenance tasks will take up a large amount of your time.
All the time you spend managing and updating WordPress sites for your clients is time you don’t get to spend doing strategic, high-value work. Streamlining this process is one of the fastest ways to earn yourself healthier profits without increasing work hours.
Even the simple act of logging out of one WordPress site and into another takes time. Managing plugin compatibility and ensuring your clients’ sites run smoothly is also essential.
Now, the question is, how can you achieve it?
Until now, you have been using different WordPress update tools to manage multiple WordPress sites. However, if we say that you can do it with the help of one WordPress management tool, you won’t agree!
But, it is possible.
Here, we will explain why you need a single dashboard for WordPress website management. We will also discuss features to look at in a WordPress management tool and which tools are the best in the market.
So, let’s get started.
Top Reasons to Use a Single Dashabord for Managing Multiple Sites
Here are some reasons to leverage a single dashboard to manage multiple WordPress sites.
1. Streamlined Backup & Restoration
Managing the backup of multiple WordPress sites might look challenging upfront. A single dashboard streamlines this by enabling you to manage multiple WordPress sites from a location, ensuring the website backs up without any manual effort.
For instance, an agency can manage automatic backup from a single dashboard, ensuring continuous backups are taken every night, thus reducing risks and errors.
Due to automatic backup, you won’t miss any of the crucial backups. Along with that, quick restoration is essential in case of emergencies, such as plugin failure or backup of multiple sites at the same time.
2. Enhanced Security
Security is one primary concern when you manage multiple WordPress sites. With a single dashboard, you can constantly change security policies and even monitor any of the vulnerabilities and threats that could occur on multiple sites.
For instance, if a vulnerability or attack has occurred on various WordPress sites, you can implement a security patch from a single dashboard, which will be reflected on all the sites.
By consolidating all management tasks into a single dashboard, you can effectively address security vulnerabilities, implement crucial updates instantly, and protect your sites from potential threats. This comprehensive approach not only safeguards your clients’ data but also instills trust in your management capabilities.
3. Efficient Monitoring & Maintenance
When you manage multiple WordPress sites, you might feel overwhelmed by checking performance and uptime and even handling maintenance tasks. With a single dashboard, you can manage the performance and uptime of multiple sites from one location, identify any issues, and resolve them immediately.
For example, if you observe constant downtime on multiple sites, you can examine these sites thoroughly and take immediate action to resolve the issue.
Using a single dashboard, you can track all site changes in real-time and efficiently handle all maintenance-related tasks. This eliminates operational issues and allows you to focus heavily on strategic growth.
4. Reduced Workload
If you are required to manage multiple WordPress sites, it will take a lot of your time. With a centralized location, you can manage updates, security, and content across multiple sites without using different tools.
For instance, you can install the same plugin across 10 WordPress sites without repeatedly logging in to each one.
With a single dashboard for WordPress sites, you will have a streamlined approach to enhancing productivity and reducing the complexity of all the daily tasks that your employees perform in the organization.
5. Scalability
Scalability is one of the main benefits of having a single dashboard for managing multiple WordPress sites. As your agency grows and you start working with various clients, you will require a centralized system to handle everything.
For example, if your agency gets 20 new clients, you can integrate their data into a single dashboard without needing more software.
In the end, a single dashboard will adapt according to your necessities and help you manage multiple WordPress sites with the same level of security, performance, and quality.
WordPress Management Tools: Features You Need
It’s easy to see the main benefits of comprehensive WordPress management to web agency owners. Anything that helps you finish time-consuming tasks faster and more efficiently is a valuable business tool. Some of the features that growing agencies need include:
Secure Login Management. It is incredibly important to securely store login details from multiple websites and access them quickly. Ineffective password management is practically a gift to any opportunistic hacker.
Update Rollout Management. Instead of updating individual WordPress instances and then updating plugins and themes, a fully-featured WordPress Management tool will let you roll out.
User Management. You probably don’t want to perform every WordPress management and maintenance task yourself in the long run. You will need to be able to outsource WordPress
maintenance to new users, who will be assigned to specific tasks across your entire catalog.
Installation. If you can install, enable, and disable plugins, themes, or entire sites directly from a single dashboard, you can significantly reduce the amount of time WordPress website management tasks take regularly.
Which WordPress Management Tool Should I Use?
There are dozens of different tools and many well-written guides about what makes them unique. In our experience, any platform that offers the core functionality described above will greatly improve the efficiency and reliability of your WordPress maintenance and update tasks.
There are plenty of tools to choose from. Some of the most reputable vendors on the market include:
- ManageWP. The first and biggest WordPress management service.
- MainWP. An excellent open-source management service.
- WP Remote. A free, easy-to-use tool for managing unlimited websites.
- Jetpack Manage. A fully-featured plugin bundle that includes WordPress management solutions for multiple sites.
- CMS Commander. A hosted solution with a no-nonsense interface and a wide range of integration options.
- iControlWP. A flexible, feature-filled option that offers site restore capabilities.
- InfiniteWP. A self-contained WordPress management solution that users install directly on their website server.
- WP Pipeline. A low-cost plugin that allows for easy WordPress management from a single dashboard.
Each one of these options can offer the functionality web agency owners need. Personally, we like ManageWP and MainWP, and regularly recommend them to our clients. This is important because WordPress management tools allow web agency owners to easily outsource routine maintenance.
Three Ways WordPress Management Tools Enable Scalable Growth
Once you have a comprehensive WordPress management solution in place, you can begin optimizing your retainer agreements accordingly. There are multiple ways you can turn WordPress website maintenance into a value-driving business service and use it to enable growth.
First, you can and should charge a retainer fee to clients who receive ongoing updates. This will allow you to schedule dedicated employee hours for WordPress management tasks.
Second, you can optimize the number of plugins and themes you use to make the maintenance process easier. Although updating individual WordPress plugins and themes takes little time, resolving complex compatibility issues can become incredibly time-consuming.
When that happens, a small task that was supposed to take a few minutes can occupy the rest of your day. Reducing the risk of compatibility issues eating up your workday can significantly increase business value – because it happens to everyone.
Third, you can develop a robust set of standard operating procedures for WordPress management. This lets you delegate maintenance and updates to third-party partners, including white label WordPress maintenance providers.
If a white label WordPress agency handles your maintenance and updates tasks through a single dashboard, you can focus more time and energy on developing valuable high-impact solutions for your customers. At the same time, you can easily verify your partner’s work directly through the interface – everyone wins.
Hire WordPress developer at UnlimitedWP and enjoy well-designed, custom websites. But you already know that. Let’s skip the small talk and get right to what you need: results.
Lastly, you can get great results with our WordPress website care plans. We’ll create a site that works for you, your brand, and your customers.