Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish web content on a consistent basis to attract new traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. The focus of this section is to help you understand why an expertly configured site is different from a professionally configured website. You will also learn how much work is required to ensure that when everything is set up and configured, new visitors will automatically start flowing when you publish fresh content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business becoming so much more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth learning about any advantage available to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over the competition. Having an expertly configured website gives you an immediate competitive advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Process 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 a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the main difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s a story.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was humming along in the gizmo factory when things came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and immediately walked to the main control box. After staring at the board for less than 3 minutes or so, the expert then produced a tiny hammer from his tool belt and made a very gentle tap about 3 cm from the bottom-right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine inside the workshop began working once more.
The plant manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were charged so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for having spent years developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website or blog configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although the solution to many problems can seem ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get desired results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to ensure that everything will function as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts including your server, your website, and various third-party sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your business will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Services
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all of your content will get published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external services to your network, content with links pointing back to your site is automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and website will receive exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the sites and online services will need to be set up before configuring your settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with useful data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use this information to integrate and automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site data are set up, use this information to integrate and automate web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up in order to 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 pages and bring new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profiles with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can add to your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(WordPress 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
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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 feature is ticked or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area when a new post is 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 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 sites linked to from your content, 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using WordPress permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is completely safe from a cyberattack.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you specify how to present your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Many social plugins let you choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Additional Configuration Steps For WordPress Sites
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your site complies with all laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article about why it’s important to have a compliant website, refer to this article:
Post Categories And Tags
Post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. HTML site maps provide users with a an understandable map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search engine bots can read. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!
When visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a dead link, they will typically be presented with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then is post web content on a consistent basis to start generating more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take some web professionals months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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