Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your website using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to drive more traffic is publish content consistently!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically attract new visitors when you begin posting content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are researching any and every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off with a flying start from the moment their website is launched.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
Things are going according to schedule in the widget plant when everything suddenly stops.
No one can figure out what went wrong and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, immediately goes to the main control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for about 2 minutes, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a gentle tap near the left side of the box.
Immediately, everything starts working once more.
The floor manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives a service bill for $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Why were they expected to pay so much for less than five minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one on the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to be compensated fairly for having invested years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress site fully set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While experts often make difficult situations and problems look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services need to be set up and activated to achieve certain results
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that processes will run how you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your website or blog, and various external sites or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your webhosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
External Sites
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content should be published to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, get distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your network, content linking back to your website will get automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and business will be exposed to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some web properties and online platforms will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmasters, use the account information with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, you can add your account information to WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin and feed data automatically to many other online applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account has been with Bing are set up, the details can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up before you can configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are various sites and platforms you can add to your traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services section
By default, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping various update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your articles, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks enable your site to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Changing WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help your site generate more traffic
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is completely immune from a cyberattack.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site with free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social sharing plugins let you select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring Settings – Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Additional Sections To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to WordPress here:
Tags & Post Categories
Categories & tags help search engines better classify and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help search engines classify and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When online users type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they will typically be presented with an error – page not found message …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is publish new content on a consistent basis to bring traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web developers months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively using a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing methods.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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