Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is post web content consistently to start generating new traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. You will understand what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured website. You will also understand how much work needs to be done to ensure that when all is set up and configured, you can get web traffic automatically when you begin publishing new content consistently on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are looking for any and every advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were going well in the widget assembly factory when everything ground to a sudden halt.
As no one could figure out what was wrong, the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for less than 3 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy little hammer from his utility belt and made a very gentle tap about 3 cm from the top-right side of the box.
Immediately, the machinery sprang to life once again.
The plant manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a bill for $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialled the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged so much for less than five minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a site configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although many experts often make difficult things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up to get desired outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to ensure that things will work as expected, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved. It’s not as easy as installing a plugin, clicking a couple of buttons, or tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your web site, and a number of third-party sites or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business can attract will be unwanted 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 looking at things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
Configuring External Web Properties
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all of your content will be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external sites into your configuration, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and website will then receive exposure online, helping you tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some external sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site 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 tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google, you can use this information with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, your account data can be integrated with WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account is with Bing are set up, you can use this information to automate traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted 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 tools, 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 automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your various social accounts 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profile pages with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party site accounts, 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 ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely configured your settings 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, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(You can 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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to notify the list of update services whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion Settings
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 sites 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your permalink URLs …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
WordPress – Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is safe from being attacked.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here for more details:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with members of their online communities can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins let you choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your website, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Additional Areas To Consider
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted 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 do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website, go here:
WordPress Tags And Post Categories
Post categories and tags help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s categories and tags should be discussed 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 post categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find more of your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like 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 Page
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post new content consistently to automatically attract more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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