Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site 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 article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is post great content on a regular basis to automatically generate more traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of the traffic automation process. 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 existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site to attract new traffic automatically when you begin posting web content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition becoming increasingly more difficult businesses are exploring any and every advantage available to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage over other competitors. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having a significant competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site 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 one way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was going well in the widget-making workshop when all of a sudden, production ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and headed immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about 3 inches from the left-hand corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The plant manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services rendered for $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for having spent years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WP site fully configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social sites and dozens of other web properties would be instantly 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 site?)
While the solution to many problems can seem ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to achieve specific results
- Which options need to be configured to ensure that processes will work as expected, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many components including your server, your website, and various external sites and online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your website may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites or online services.
External Sites
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content will get published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external platforms have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site gets automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your site will benefit from exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site to help speed up the configuration process 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 site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with useful data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use this information to integrate and automate web 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 website’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, you can add traffic monitoring code to WordPress using a simple plugin and feed data instantly to many other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site data are set up, this information can be used to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
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 this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up before you can configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profiles with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can add to your own web traffic system. Please 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 services, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely 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 field
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 feature is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services box whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although discussion settings 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 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks enable WordPress to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up permalinks, refer to this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
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 dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines like Google to index …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website 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. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with others online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories And Tags
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools 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 two different things. Only search engines can interpret XML sitemaps. Although Google can index your pages just from 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 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors searching for your site enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will normally be presented with a 404 page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to automatically bring traffic is add new content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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