Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to begin bringing new web traffic is add fresh content regularly!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. We explained the best way to start 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will explain why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured site. You will also understand just what type of work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is fully configured, new web traffic will automatically start flowing as you begin posting content on a regular basis on your site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth exploring any opportunity you can to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is 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 explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is more work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was going just fine in the widget factory when all of a sudden, production ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without saying a word, immediately headed to the main control box. After staring at the box for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a very gentle tap about two cm from the right side of the box.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a bill for $5,000.
The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website or blog set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While many experts often make difficult solutions look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services you need to set up to get specific results
- Which settings you need to configure to ensure that everything will work as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing a solution, tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different components including your web server, your site, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring The Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your webhosting account that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business may 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 unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites and services.
External Accounts
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will automatically be syndicated to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external services into your setup, content with links pointing back to your site is automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and business will be exposed to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to 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:
Google Webmasters
(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 information, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account, use the account information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, traffic monitoring information can be added to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account is set up, you can use this information with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which a number of 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 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 attract new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts in order to integrate these with 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 visitors to your site.
You should have accounts with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, 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 choose those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various sites and platforms that can be added to your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration 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 – Configuring Your Website
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 key areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
The WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen 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, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can 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 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 of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog 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 here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly notify the list of update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring Settings – WP Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to 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 bring more visitors to your site
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is completely safe from a cyber attack.
(WordPress 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 bots.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content more indexable …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with members of their social communities can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress – Traffic Generation Theme Features
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 the layout and design of your site, some themes also include options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your content 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)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, you need to ensure that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article about how to quickly add legal pages to your website or blog here:
Categories & Tags
Post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your web pages.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and post categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
HTML Site Map
A visitor site map that displays 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 web content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is mostly code that only search bots can understand. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they are presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error 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 plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to start attracting traffic is publish web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process typically takes 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 section of the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing methods.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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