Welcome to Part 5 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to grow your business online automatically using the WordPress CMS platform.
So far, we have covered the following in this series:
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is publish web content consistently to generate more traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In Part 3, we discuss the configuration phase. We configured all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that can affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …
(In Part 3 you learn how to configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)
In Part Four, you learned how to set up various WordPress plugins that can help drive visitors automatically to your website or blog.
(Publish once to WordPress and automate the distribution of your content to all other marketing channels!)
In this section of the WordPress web traffic automation blueprint article series, we discuss ways to optimize the traffic system with a number of different tools and methods.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Systems
In addition to getting your WordPress website expertly configured, the key to generating consistent traffic of high quality is having a clear business vision, careful digital planning, and great systems in place.
(Automating traffic is the product of a business vision, planning, and great systems)
Let’s review the systems that will help you grow and manage all traffic.
These include:
- Marketing Systems – The processes and strategies used to drive traffic to your website.
- Technical Systems – The systems used to ensure that your digital presence remains optimized for receiving traffic.
- Business Systems – The systems and processes used to manage and respond to new traffic.
(Use systems to grow, automate, and manage your web traffic)
Let’s briefly review how important these systems are:
Marketing Systems
Your marketing systems consist of the processes and methods used to drive traffic to your website. Your online marketing systems can be tested by asking questions such as:
- What is your content marketing/online marketing strategy?
- How will you apportion your budget and resources to these channels?
- How will you create and optimize your content and marketing campaigns?
- How will you test and measure the ROI of your campaigns?
During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising (e.g. pay-per-click ads) to help generate some data, such as the keywords people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create web content targeted specifically to your audience.
Technical Systems
Your technical systems and processes ensure that your digital presence remains optimized for receiving traffic. There’s no point driving traffic to your site if your site is constantly experiencing problems or your web pages take a long time to load.
Your systems need to be able to adequately handle areas like webhosting, site maintenance and support, installing, configuring, and updating new applications (e.g. plugins), integration, customization, troubleshooting, etc.
Your technical systems can be tested by asking questions such as:
- Who looks after my webhosting?
- Who is looking after my website and keeping my site, plugins, themes, etc. maintained and up-to-date?
- Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should things go wrong?
Many potential issues can be minimized if your website planning and setup and configuration phases have been completed correctly. Like all technology, however, new problems will always arise. You will need the right technical systems in place to handle these.
Business Systems
You need good business systems in place to help you manage new traffic. These include:
- Communication systems
- Resources management – human, financial
- Handling sales enquiries
- Order fulfillment
- Customer service/training
- etc.
If you plan to outsource areas of your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then you will need systems in place for managing all outsourcing.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Traffic Loops
With clear business objectives and great systems in place, all you need to focus on is implementing your “traffic loop”.
Let’s go through an example of how to implement, optimize, and automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the flowchart below …
(Implementing an effective traffic loop)
Increase Reach & Visibility Online
The first step of the process is to expose your business to as many traffic generation sites and channels as possible.
Useful Tips & Ideas
- An expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically publish your content on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content through your expertly configured WordPress site.
- As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising can help you generate data, which you can use to create web content better targeted to your audience.
- Repurpose your content to leverage the power and reach of different media formats.
- Continue learning about ways to bring more traffic using methods like LinkedIn, podcasts, updates, etc.
Tools, Plugins, & Strategies
See previous sections of this article series for a number of excellent plugins, tools, and strategies we’ve already covered to help you reach more potential users.
Also, if you haven’t already, see other posts on this site to learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your WordPress site:
- Share your posts online with others,
- Run contests, offer downloads or discounts for likes/shares,
- Display user generated content, feeds, etc.
- Publish and distribute content online in other media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, infographics, etc.)
Build Authority And Credibility
Getting more content published is a great first step, but to make this activity more effective, your content needs to be building authority and credibility with users.
Publishing higher quality content improves your chances of getting it shared around and viewed by more people and hence more traffic.
Tips
- Create and publish content that adds value to potential users and that showcases your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, case studies, adding testimonials, etc.
- Consider publishing a special report that you can sell or distribute online.
Tools And Methods
If you need endless content ideas for your website or blog, then subscribe to our FREE email training series on content marketing here:
Also, contact us to learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your website or blog:
- Legal Pages
- Testimonials
- Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
- Ratings
- User Reviews
- Badges/Certificates Of Recognition
Grow Influence And Engagement
As your business grows, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting an online forum or network.
With “Traffic On Demand,” most of your traffic comes from customers or subscribers – people who already know you and trust you. Your influence and credibility can be used to generate traffic with every blog post you publish or email you send out.
Traffic Optimization Tips
- Encourage users to leave comments and start discussions on your site.
- Add an autoresponder newsletter and encourage people to subscribe.
- Add a paid or free membership site.
- Create or join an online group on LinkedIn/Facebook.
Plugins, Tools, And Methods
There are many solutions and plugins that can help increase your online influence and improve user engagement. For example:
- Autoresponders (e.g. Aweber, GetResponse, etc.)
- Contact Forms, Live Chat
- Forums and Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
- Polls & Surveys
- Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
- Comment sharing
- Add media, image galleries, etc.
Identify Problems And Provide Solutions
By taking advantage of incoming traffic to discover what users are searching for, you should have no problem coming up with ideas for new solutions, all of which can provide you with new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.
Traffic Optimization Ideas
- Create an online training course.
- Consider publishing a special report that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on Amazon.
- Add an e-commerce store to your business.
Plugins, Tools, & Methods
If you plan to provide products and services online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful WordPress plugins you may want to add to your site include:
- Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
- Learning Management Systems (e.g. Courseware)
- Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)
Analyze Data & Feedback
The final step of the process is to collect and analyze data. Learning to gather and interpret data from existing traffic lets you discover new traffic opportunities.
Hopefully, by now you have already installed an analytics tool like Google Analytics on your site. Make sure you can also understand the data.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Summary
All you have to do once you implement the above strategies is repeat the process, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and improve your results.
In summary:
- Start with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by good marketing, technical and business systems,
- Implement a content marketing strategy (consider also investing in some paid advertising to drive initial traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
- Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions if necessary to help build authority, trust, and credibility, and also to improve engagement with users,
- Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
- Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.
Hopefully, this post has given you a blueprint that will help you drive more visitors automatically to your WordPress web site and build a more successful business online.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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