Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add new content on a regular basis to bring traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to drive visitors automatically simply by adding fresh content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and are looking for any and every advantage they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is additional labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things were going well in the widget-making factory when the equipment suddenly stopped.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without uttering a word, headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny hammer and made a very gentle tap near the right-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything sprang back to life.
The plant manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The factory manager picked up the phone and called the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a large amount of money for so little time delivering a minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for investing years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other traffic-generating online 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 driving traffic to your site?)
While many experts often make complicated things look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up to achieve specific results
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that things will work how you have planned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your site, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration process)
Let’s take a better look at what’s involved.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your server that affect how you will handle 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 welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like configuring server-level spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
Integration With External Sites
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all of your content should be published to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, be distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your system, content pointing back to your website will be automatically fed to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social media accounts, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your business will receive added exposure online, helping your business tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to speed up the process 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:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, tools, and reports about their website.
Once your account and site details with Google Search Console are set up, your information can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, your account data can be integrated with WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site data, use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your social 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 drive new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
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 an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse account.
There are various platforms that can be added to your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
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 intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can 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
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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 in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify the update services list whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this tutorial: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
WordPress Plugins – Configuration
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more visitors to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their own networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins let you select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring Settings – Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, many themes also provide built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) allow you to configure options and settings for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Additional Configuration Features For WordPress Sites
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your site is compliant with government legal requirements.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your website’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find 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 are web pages that provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search bots can interpret. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from 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.
Don’t Forget Your 404 Error Page
When online visitors enter the wrong URL or click on an invalid link, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do to bring more traffic is post great content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process can take some web professionals a long time 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 addressed in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To keep reading about this topic, click here:
This article is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing methods.
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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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