Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to generate more traffic is add web content consistently!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain how to configure a WordPress site so you can automatically begin driving web traffic as you begin to publish content on a consistent basis to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are exploring any and every advantage they can that can help you improve their results and performance online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge competitive advantage. For business owners, an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with a little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was going just fine in the gizmo-making factory when the equipment suddenly came to a complete stop.
No one could figure out what is wrong and so the manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately went to the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for less than 2 minutes, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer and made a very gentle tap about 3 inches from the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything sprang to life.
The floor manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a request of payment for services for $5,000.
The manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were charged so much for so little time delivering such a minimal amount of work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for having spent years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress blog fully configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other online properties would be automatically 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?)
While experts often make complex situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure processes will run as planned, 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 challenging, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your web site, and a number of external sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web 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 will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about 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 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure various external sites and online services.
External Accounts
The concept behind adding external sites is that all of your content will get posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will radiate outwards automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external sites to your traffic system, content linked back to your site will get automatically published on search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content will then receive additional exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some of these external sites and online 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 WordPress settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important information, tools, and reports about their website.
Once your account has been set up, your information can be used to automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, you can add traffic tracking code to WordPress using a plugin and feed data instantly to many other applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, your information can be used with traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the well-known 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 pick the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
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 visitors can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various solutions you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
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.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described 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 prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(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 …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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 in this section can influence web 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 impact someone’s decision 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly ping your update services list whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
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 blogs 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, see this tutorial: How To Configure Your WordPress Permalinks
WP Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your site, including many plugins that 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 website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web content easy for search engines to index …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO 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 sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online 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 to your website with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social share plugins let you select 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 likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to protect content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings and options for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as clicking a few buttons and enabling the feature …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure For Improved Traffic Results
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad 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 make money online, it’s important that your site is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
If you need help understanding the importance of having a legally compliant website, go here:
WordPress Categories And Tags
Categories and tags help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong web address or click on links pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post great content on a consistent basis to automatically start driving web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take many web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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