Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this 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 to automatically start attracting traffic is publish web content regularly!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will explain why an expertly configured site is different, and how much work is required to make sure that when everything is set up and fully configured, you will bring web traffic automatically whenever you add fresh content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are exploring any advantage available to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site 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 system!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is moving along in the widget assembly factory when everything suddenly ceases working.
As no one can figure out what’s gone wrong, the manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrives and, without uttering a word, walks immediately to the main control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for what seems like 2 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer from his shirt pocket and makes a single tap near the right-hand edge of the control unit.
Immediately, all the machinery springs back to life.
The manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
Feeling angry, the manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for less than five minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to be compensated fairly for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating 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 driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many problems may seem ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up to achieve specific results
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure processes will work how you have planned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing a plugin, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your website, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your web server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your website can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like implementing server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, 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, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites or online services.
External Services
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content will get published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your configuration, content linking back to your website will be automatically fed to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social networks, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content and business will be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to speed up the configuration 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 Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
Once your account is with Google are set up, the account information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings 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 activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking information can be added to WordPress using plugins and and sent to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account, this information can be used to automate web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up before you can configure these as part of 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 bring new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to many social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your WordPress site …
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 page.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your own traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As stated in 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 prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
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 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 traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to get 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly notify various update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global 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 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of 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, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easily indexable …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it allows you to 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 their own networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site using WordPress plugins)
You can add social features to your site easily using WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins let you select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your website, some themes also include options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your options and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Areas To Consider
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components 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 visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
WordPress Post Tags & Post Categories
WordPress post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your website’s post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your website to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just from 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 can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your site that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web 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 server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website or blog fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then to automatically generate traffic is post great content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform the configuration process can take 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 can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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