Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated web traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically attract traffic is add great content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started 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 where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will explain what makes an expertly configured site different. You will also discover what type of work needs to be done to make sure that when all is set up and configured, you can automatically begin driving new visitors when you post fresh content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive and are researching any advantage they can to improve their results and performance online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, you have a flying start as soon as your website is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain 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 professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take additional labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with a joke.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Things were going fine in the widget factory when production suddenly came to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and walked immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the wiring board for no more than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a little hammer from his pocket and made a single tap near the bottom-right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine returned to normal.
The plant manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the 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 had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors consistently to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other traffic-generating online 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 site?)
While the solution to many problems often seems quite easy once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure things will function as 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 technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a solution, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of various different parts including your web hosting server, your web site, and a number of external sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website 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 diagram of the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas.
Configuring Your Web 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). We’re talking about tweaking settings in your web server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your website will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites.
External Sites
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content should be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, be distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your configuration, content linked back to your site will be automatically added to these platforms. Your content and site will be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s 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:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters 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, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account has been set up, the information can be used with traffic-related 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 results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, you can add your account code to WordPress using a simple plugin and send data automatically to many other online applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, you can use this information to automate web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained 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 online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with 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 Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts 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 pages and attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have pages set up with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up. 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 greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. 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 site that lets you add an RSS feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
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 website.
There are various solutions you can incorporate into your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to 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 your site.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global WordPress 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
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – 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 specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified 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 in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, 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 main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to automatically notify your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
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 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)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s permalink URLs …
(Configuring post permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up WP permalinks, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your website, including 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 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 web security.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines find, crawl and index your website …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving your website’s ability to rank better in search engines)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your website easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing to your site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Additional Configuration Areas
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.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Categories And Tags
Categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your website’s post tags and categories during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your online 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. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide readers with a logical map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are code that only search engine bots can understand. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on a dead hyperlink, they are presented with an error – page not found message …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional 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 plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is post content on a consistent basis to automatically drive traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have 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 article in our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
- Website Traffic Blueprint Part Four – How To Turn Your Website Into An Automated Web Traffic Machine
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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