Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is post new content on a regular basis to begin attracting more traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand 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 existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We will show you what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured site, and how much work is required to make sure that when everything is fully configured, you can attract web traffic automatically as you begin adding new content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are looking for any and every advantage available to improve their results and performance online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally 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 understand the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take additional work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is going well in the widget plant when everything comes to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives shortly after being summoned and, without uttering a word, walks straight towards the main control box. After staring at the schematics for about 2 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny little hammer from his tool belt and makes a gentle tap about three cm from the right-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything springs to life again.
The plant manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a request of payment for services totalling $5,000.
Bewildered and bordering on a sense of outrage, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they have been charged such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a website configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be instantly 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 site?)
While experts often make complex things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than just installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to achieve certain results
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure everything functions how you have envisioned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a plugin, tweaking some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your server, your WordPress site, and a number of third-party sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we create a simple diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your web hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your business will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites.
Configuring External Services
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all of your content will be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will radiate outwards automatically to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external sites into your network, content with links pointing back to your site gets automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your website will be exposed to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your settings to help save time 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 WordPress site’s settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google Webmaster Tools, this information can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account and site details, you can add traffic monitoring code to WordPress using a plugin and feed data automatically to other online applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account with Bing Webmaster Tools, you can use your information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various platforms that can be added to your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Generation Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including 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 site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find and 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 Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress – Traffic Generation Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure options and settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Other Areas To Consider
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do business online, you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on the importance of having a legally compliant website here:
WordPress Post Tags And Categories
Post tags & categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover your web 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 search engines like Google will index your pages 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 – An Additional Source Of Traffic!
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on a dead hyperlink, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post great content on a regular basis to automatically generate more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is addressed in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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