Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically generate traffic is add new content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. 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 two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We explain why an expertly configured site is different, and how much work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is set up and configured, you can automatically get new traffic when you begin adding new content on a consistent basis to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting increasingly more competitive worldwide, it’s worth learning about any and every advantage that can help you increase your own competitiveness online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their website is launched.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were humming along in the widget assembly workshop when everything ground to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately headed towards the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for less than 5 minutes, the expert then took out a little hammer from his tool box and made a very gentle tap about one cm from the left side of the control unit.
Immediately, the plant sprang to life.
The floor manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the plant stand to lose when production 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 ask to be compensated fairly for spending years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your blog configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
While many experts often make complex situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring a few basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to get certain results
- Which options need to be configured to ensure that everything functions as planned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, clicking a button … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your server, your web site, and a number of third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we create a simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web-hosting account 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 website will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to configure various third-party sites.
External Services
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content is posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it radiates outwards automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your setup, content linked back to your site will get automatically posted to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your website will benefit from added exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help 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 before configuring your WordPress settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful information, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account has been with Google are set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site details has been entered, traffic tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a simple 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 with Bing Webmaster Tools, this information can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, 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 plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your 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 drive new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your page.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your own web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
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 of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section …
(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 on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get 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 ticked or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify various update services 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, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
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 articles, 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help your site generate more traffic
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is completely safe from a cyber-attack.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with others online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social share plugins allow you to select which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default 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 site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring Settings – WP Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also give you options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
Additional Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
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 damage your business as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with all government regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to WordPress here:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags & post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help search engines better organize and index your website, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap contains code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can 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 results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your Site’s 404 Page
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will normally be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is add web content regularly to automatically begin bringing more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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