Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add great content consistently to automatically begin bringing more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of this process. We helped you understand 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured to automatically start to get visitors when you begin posting web content regularly to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are researching any and every advantage they can to get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over the competition. An expertly configured website gives your business a significant competitive advantage from the very start.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to explain the key difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is additional work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with a story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is running smoothly in the widget factory when all of a sudden, things grinds to a complete stop.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrives and heads out directly to the main control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for what seems like 2 minutes, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer from his tool box and makes a very gentle tap near the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, the machinery returns to normal.
The manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Angrily, the factory manager rings the expert. Why had he charged them so much for so little time delivering such minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 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 had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a blog set up so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously easy once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up and activated to achieve desired results
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to make sure processes will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing a piece of software, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of a number of different components including your web server, your WP site, and various external sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simplified diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site 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 website will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites.
External Web Properties & Solutions – Configuration
The concept behind setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your traffic system, content linking back to your website will be automatically added to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your website will then be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of these external sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help 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 settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with useful data, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google Webmaster Tools, use your details to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) 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, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, account information can be added to WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account with Bing, this information can be used with web traffic-related 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 website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can 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 get new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online web 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 an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various platforms that can be incorporated into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
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 of the important points.
WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure 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 listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated below the Update Services section title,
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 section
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post 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
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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 text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically 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, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Screen)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is safe from cyberattacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find 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 Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their friends and members of their social networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also provide built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Configuration Aspects For WordPress Traffic Automation
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the elements 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 an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do business online, you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
To learn more about how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site, go here:
Categories And Tags
Post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.
(Categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
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 tools discover your web 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. HTML site maps provide readers with a logical map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly just a bunch of code that only search bots can read. Although Google will index your pages 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.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they will normally be greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then to drive web traffic is publish great content consistently.
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 external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this process can take some website developers 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 covered in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic organically with a WordPress website and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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