Create Site Templates

A template site is a pre-made WordPress site with your plugins and themes that you can use to quickly and easily create more sites. This is especially useful if you want to create multiple sites using the same plugins or themes. While the template provides a base, it’s still customizable. You will add content, and images, and change theme settings to personalize each new site built from the template.

This guide outlines the steps in setting up your own Site Template.

Creating your Site Template

The first step is to create a site on your Pressable account. You can set this up as a Staging Site and give it a name to indicate the template.

In this example, the Site Template is created as a WooCommerce site with the name store-template1

Building the Site Template

Once you have the site created, you can choose the WordPress plugins and theme for your template site. This would depend on the overall purpose and functionality you want for your future websites built from it.

In our example above, we are looking to build WooCommerce stores using the template. You can log in to the site’s WP Admin dashboard to set up the site.

Adding Plugins to your Site Template

Here are some general categories of plugins commonly used in template sites:

• Security: A security plugin is crucial for any website. It helps protect your site from malware, hacking attempts, and other security vulnerabilities. Your Pressable sites come with Jetpack pre-installed. For a site template, we do not recommend connecting Jetpack (connect Jetpack on the cloned site created from the template, not the template site itself).
• Backup: Regular backups are essential to ensure you can recover your website in case of data loss. On Pressable your sites are backed up daily, and Jetpack also provides backups of your sites once set up; so you should not need an additional plugin for this.
• Caching: Pressable provides various levels of caching, and you should not need a plugin for this function.
• Optimization and Performance: Jetpack also offers optimizations on your site which we recommend testing before adding an additional plugin. However, some plugins can help improve website performance – Fast Velocity Minify, Autoptimize, WP-Optimize, etc.
• SEO Optimization: An SEO plugin helps you optimize your website content for search engines to improve your website’s ranking in search results. Popular options include Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and Rank Math SEO.
• Form Builders: If your website needs contact forms or other user interaction elements, a form builder plugin simplifies the process. Popular options include Gravity Forms (premium), WPForms (free and premium), and Contact Form 7.
• Image Optimization: Optimizing images for faster loading speeds is essential. Plugins like Smush, and EWWW Image Optimizer can help.
• Page Builders: While some themes have built-in page builders, if you plan to use builders like Elementor, or Divi, adding these plugins to the site template will make the process quicker.

This is how the plugin setup on the example site looks like:

Important Considerations:

• Aim for a balance between essential functionalities and keeping it lightweight for efficient future site creation.
• Ensure all chosen plugins are compatible with each other, your selected theme, and with the latest version of WordPress.
• Choose lightweight plugins that won’t slow down your website (the less plugins, the better).
• Don’t connect plugins like Jetpack on the Site Template. Connections should only be done on sites created from the Site Template (see Using your Site Template section below for more details).

Adding a Theme to your Site Template

Selecting the right theme for your Pressable Site Template depends on the kind of websites you envision creating from the template. Here are some qualities of a theme that would be ideal for template sites:

• A Lightweight and well-coded theme ensures fast loading times and minimizes conflicts with plugins.
• Choose a flexible theme with a good customization options for various elements on your site. This will allows you to easily adapt the theme’s look and feel for different websites built from the template.
• If you plan to use a page builder plugin for more complex layouts in your future websites, ensure your theme is compatible with the page builder/s of your choice.
• A responsive theme ensures your website looks good and functions properly on all devices (desktops, tablets, mobiles).
• Regular theme updates ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress versions and security patches.
• Choose a theme with good support in case you encounter any issues during customization.

The best theme for your template site depends on your specific needs and preferences. Research and test different options to find one that balances functionality, flexibility, and performance.

Using your Site Template

Once you have the Site Template ready, you can use it to create new sites by leveraging the Cloning feature on Pressable.

You can do this from within the Site’s settings page on the Pressable Dashboard. You can give your clone a suitable name to match your new site and also select a data center of your choice:

Clicking on the Clone button will create a new WordPress site which is a copy of your Template site. You can also choose to create the clone site as a Staging site and make it live by adding your custom domain when it’s ready.

Please note that any changes you make to the clone site will not affect your Template site in any way. You may use the same Template site to create multiple clones.