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 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is add great content consistently to bring traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website 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 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to bring visitors automatically when you start to add new content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive worldwide and are exploring any advantage they believe will get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has a flying start from the moment your website is launched.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an anecdote.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Everything is moving along in the widget-making plant when things suddenly grinds to a halt.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, immediately heads to the main control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for less than 3 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny little hammer and makes a single tap near the left side of the unit.
Immediately, everything starts working once more.
The plant manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Angrily, the manager rings the expert. Why had he charged them so much for less than five minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors consistently to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a web site set up and configured so all you had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be immediately 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 website?)
While the solution to many challenges is often quite simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will work as expected, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite complicated. It’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some options and settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website 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 simple flowchart of the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your website can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect 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 configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure a number of external sites.
Third-Party Sites Configuration
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all content should be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, get automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your configuration, content linking back to your website is automatically syndicated to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the web properties and online services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to help speed up the 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, traffic monitoring data can be integrated with WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account, your information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) 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 a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social 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 traffic to your site.
Set up accounts and profiles with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are many different solutions that can be incorporated into your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your site.
Configuring WordPress
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress administration area includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As stated below the Update Services section,
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 list of services entered into the Update Services box
By default, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress will do the rest …
(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
***
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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to ping various update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
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 posts, 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of securing your websites.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving improving how search engines like Google find, crawl and index your website …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
You can add social sharing to your site easily using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins let you select 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 sharing your page.
WordPress – Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your site, some themes also give you options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic – Additional Configuration Steps
Last but not least in the web traffic 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 a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with all legal requirements.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add legal pages to your website or blog, see this article:
WordPress Categories And Tags
Categories and post tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
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 applications discover your web 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 not the same things. HTML site maps provide readers with a logical map of how your content is structured, whereas XML sitemaps contain code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just using 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 can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on a dead hyperlink, they will typically be presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to start attracting traffic is publish web content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals months to learn.
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 System series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading about this topic, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!
***
"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
***