Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to drive more traffic is publish web content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything 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 or blog on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically begin bringing traffic whenever you post fresh content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are looking for any and every advantage they can to get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. An expertly configured WordPress site gives you an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this here is a little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was moving along in the gizmo-making plant when things ground to a sudden halt.
No one could figure out what is wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately went to the main control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for 3 minutes, the expert then produced a little hammer and made a very gentle tap near the top-left side of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine returned to normal.
The floor manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such a ludicrous fee for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived 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 traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one on the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress site set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring a few basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve specific results
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that things work to plan, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a plugin, clicking a button, or tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your website or blog, and a number of external sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned 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 spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like implementing server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites.
External Accounts
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all of your content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external sites into your network, content pointing back to your website gets automatically fed to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content will then be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these web properties and online services 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, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmasters, this information can be used with traffic-related settings and notifications 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 website’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account and site details, you can add tracking code to WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and send data instantly to various other online applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account has been with Bing are set up, use this information to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers 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 web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up 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 pages and attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – 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 have specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you 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
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, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website 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.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site 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 unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 blogs 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using WordPress permalinks here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling 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, securing your website is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help to increase 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 with WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social plugins allow you to choose 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 social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, many themes also include built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing features to your content 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)
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Other Areas To Consider
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website, refer to this article:
Post Tags And Categories
Post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Visitor Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your Site’s 404 Page
When online users type in the wrong web address or click on a dead hyperlink, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web 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 plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is post great content regularly to bring web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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