Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add content regularly to drive more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of this process. 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 site, and what to do if your existing website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that traffic will automatically start flowing simply by posting fresh content on your website.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and businesses are researching every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over the competition. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you a significant competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a significant 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
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 expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this point with an amusing story.
A Semi-True Story …
Things were humming along in the gizmo assembly factory when all of a sudden, all equipment stopped.
No one could figure out what happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the circuit board for 3 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny hammer from his tool box and made a gentle tap near the top-right edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything sprang to life.
The manager was greatly overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The factory manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for less than 5 minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WP blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest 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 problems can seem ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which options you need to configure to make sure everything will function to plan, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a solution, configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a process that involves your web hosting server, your site, and a number of external sites or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites or online services.
Integration With External Web Properties
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all of your content is published from a central location (your site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your system, content linking back to your site gets automatically fed to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social sites, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content and website will receive exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and online solutions will need to be set up before configuring your settings 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 before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(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 automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account, your account details can be used with 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 results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, visitor tracking information can be added to WordPress using a plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account, use this information to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic generation system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up before you can 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 bring new traffic to your site.
You should set up profiles with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – 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 settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(WordPress Update Services)
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 …
(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 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 have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly notify all the update services you have listed when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – 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 sites 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks enable your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your post permalinks …
(Configuring post permalinks)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – WP Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of 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, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your web site.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, crawl and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with members of their social communities can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
You can add social sharing to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring 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, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your website, some themes also give you options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure For Better Traffic Flow
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online, you need to ensure that your site is compliant with all regulations.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Tags And Categories
Tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your website 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. Only search engines can understand XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using 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.
Your Site’s 404 Page
When online visitors type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they will typically be presented with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then to automatically bring more web traffic is post content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly 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 section of our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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