Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to begin attracting new traffic is add content consistently!)
In Part Two, we looked at critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to get started 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 website was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured to get new visitors automatically when you start publishing web content on your web site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive and businesses are looking for any advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s one way to describe the main difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is more work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
A Semi-True Story …
Things are working according to schedule in the widget workshop when all of a sudden, the equipment comes to a halt.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrives and walks directly to the main control box. After staring at the schematics for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then produces a little hammer from his pocket and makes a gentle tap about 3 cm from the bottom-right side of the control unit.
Immediately, everything starts working once again.
The floor manager is greatly overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager dials the expert. Why have they had been charged such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for investing years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems quite easy once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to get desired outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to ensure that things work exactly as you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not just about installing a solution, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web server, your website or blog, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your web server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like integrating spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess and error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and services.
External Web Properties & Accounts – Configuration
The idea behind adding external sites is that all content gets published to a central location (your site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external platforms have been added to your traffic network, content linked back to your website will be automatically published on your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will benefit from increased exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site details with Google Search Console are set up, use this information with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, your account code can be added to all of your pages in WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin and instantly sent to other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account with Bing Webmaster Tools, your account information can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can integrate these with 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 get new visitors to your site.
Set up profiles with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can You can syndicate your content to many social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your social feed.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(You can 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
***
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
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify various update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings enable your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is guaranteed immunity from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving your site’s SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Theme Settings – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your website, some themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
Additional Features To Configure For Improved Traffic Results
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do any type of business online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website, go here:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags and categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
Add A Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your 404 Page Not Found
When visitors enter the wrong web address into their browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your site that no longer exist, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do is add fresh content on a regular basis to attract new traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration stage of the traffic automation process typically takes some website professionals a long time 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 explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-powered website and proven online marketing strategies.
Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published – Subscribe To Our Site!
***
"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
***