Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to automatically start attracting web traffic is add new content consistently!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to automatically begin driving new traffic when you begin to publish new content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and are looking for any opportunity they can to improve their results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage over the competition. With an expertly configured website, you have a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Configuration Stage Is 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s a simple way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is additional labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this here’s a story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things are going well in the gizmo-making factory when everything comes to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately heads towards the control box. After staring at the control unit for about 2 minutes or less, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer from his pocket and makes a gentle tap about 1 inch from the right edge of the unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and starts working as before.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Angry to the point of feeling outrage, the manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they have been charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a web site fully configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges is often ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring site settings for a client. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up and activated to achieve certain results
- Which settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things will function exactly as you would like, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing a solution, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your server, your website, and a number of third-party sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is configuring settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your website may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like integrating server-level 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 error redirects, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Sites
The concept behind adding external sites is that all content is published to a central location (your site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external services to your setup, content linking back to your website will be automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social media accounts, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content and site will be exposed to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmaster Tools, your account information can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add your account information to WordPress via a simple plugin and feed data automatically to many other applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account and site data have been set up, the account details can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, 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 Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media 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 attract new traffic to your site.
Set up accounts and profile pages with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse website.
There are various solutions that can be added to your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site For Traffic
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 key areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
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
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 of displaying 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 affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to notify the list of update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites 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 website invisible to hackers and botnets.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WP Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Many social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors 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 layout and design of your website, some themes also provide built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a few buttons to configure your options and enable the feature …
(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 Sites
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories And Post Tags
Tags & post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a logical map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly just a bunch of code that only search engine bots can understand. 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 results in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong URL into their web browser or click on an invalid link, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up on your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do is publish content on a regular basis to start generating more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To keep reading about this topic, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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