WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 5 (Optimization)

Welcome to Part Five of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to turn a site into an automated traffic generation machine using WordPress.

So far, we have covered the following in this series:

In Part 1, we explain why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …

(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to automatically start generating new traffic is publish content on a regular basis!)

In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start 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 has been built with WordPress.

(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)

In Part 3, we focus on the configuration phase. We configured all the settings that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …

(In Part 3 you will configure all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability)

In Part Four, we looked at ways to automate your traffic using various plugins.

(Publish content once and automate your content distribution to all other channels!)

In this article, we discuss ways to optimize the traffic-getting process using a number of tools and methods.

WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Traffic Optimization Systems

In addition to having an expertly configured WordPress website, the key to generating consistent traffic of high quality is having a clearly-defined business vision, great digital planning, and excellent systems and process in place.

(Generating automated traffic is the product of having a clear business vision, sound planning, and systems)

Let’s review briefly the systems that will help you grow and manage your traffic.

These include:

• Marketing Systems – The processes and strategies used to create traffic for your business.
• Technical Systems – The systems used to keep your web presence optimized for receiving new traffic.
• Business Systems – The systems and processes used to manage and respond to new traffic.

(Use systems to grow, automate, optimize, and manage your traffic)

Let’s briefly review the above systems:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to create new traffic for your website. You can test your online marketing systems by asking questions such as:

• What is your content marketing/online marketing strategy?
• What resources and portion of your budget will you assign to these marketing channels?
• Who will create your content, sales funnels, and run your marketing campaigns?
• How will you test and measure the cost-effectiveness of your online campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you would 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. Google AdWords) to help generate some results. If you’re tracking your marketing campaigns correctly, this should yield some actionable data, such as the keywords people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create web content better targeted to your audience’s needs.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems and processes keep your online presence optimized for receiving new traffic. There’s no point sending traffic to your site if your site is experiencing problems or your pages are taking a long time to load.

Your technical systems need to adequately handle areas like webhosting, website maintenance and support, installing and updating new applications (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.

You can test your technical systems by 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 any problems occur?

Many potential issues can be minimized if your planning and setup and configuration phases have been completed correctly. As with all technology, however, new problems will arise. You will need the right technical systems in place to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good operational systems and processes to help you manage new traffic. These include:

• Communication systems
• Resources management – human, financial
• Handling leads and sales inquiries
• Order fulfillment
• Customer service/training
• etc.

If you intend to outsource your digital marketing and technical support, then make sure you have excellent systems in place for managing all outsourcing.

WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Optimization

With clear business objectives and great systems in place, all you need to focus on is how to implement a “traffic loop”.

Let’s go through an example of how to implement, optimize, and automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the diagram below …

(Traffic loop)

Increase Reach & Visibility Online

The first step of the process is to expose your business to as many potential users as your time and resources will allow.

Useful Tips

• An expertly configured WordPress site will allow you to automatically distribute your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content online.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Google AdWords) can help generate some initial actionable data, which you can use to create content targeted specifically to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to bring traffic using methods like Twitter advertising, banner ads, Reddit, etc.

Tools, Plugins, & Strategies

We’ve already covered a number of excellent plugins, tools, and strategies in earlier sections of this article series.

Also, if you haven’t already, learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your WordPress website:

• Share your posts online with others,
• Run contests, offer discounts or downloads for likes/shares,
• Display user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Distribute content online in various media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, audio, etc.)

Build Authority & Credibility

Getting more of your content out there is a great first step, but for this activity to be really effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with visitors.

Publishing authoritative content improves your chances of getting it shared around and hence more visitors.

Useful Tips

• Focus on creating content that adds value to your audience and that showcases your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing a special report that you can sell or distribute online.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

We have created a comprehensive email course on how to develop a content marketing strategy, how to promote your business with content, content creation tools, and ways to never run out of new content ideas that you can plug into at no cost here:

Also, if you haven’t already, learn more about WordPress plugins that let you easily add the following to your site:

• Legal Pages
• Testimonials
• Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
• Ratings
• User Reviews
• Badges/Certificates Of Trust

Grow Influence & Engagement

As your business grows, you may want to consider developing “traffic on tap.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting an online forum, membership site, or even your own social network.

With “Traffic On Tap,” most of your traffic will come from customers or subscribers – people who already like you and trust you. Your influence and reputation can be used to generate traffic with every post you publish or email you send out.

Useful Tips And Ideas

• Encourage users to leave comments and start discussions on your site.
• Add an autoresponder newsletter and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a free, paid, or ‘freemium’ membership site, online forum, or social community.
• Create or join an online group on Facebook/LinkedIn.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

Many solutions and plugins are available that are easy to implement and can help grow your influence and improve engagement. For example:

• Autoresponders (e.g. Aweber, MailChimp, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums & Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls and Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, image galleries, etc.

Identify Needs/Problems & Provide Solutions

By taking advantage of incoming traffic to discover what problems your visitors are trying to solve, you should have no problem developing new services and products, all of which can provide you with new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.

Useful Tips

• Create a free or paid e-learning program.
• Publish expert guides that can be sold or distributed online.
• Consider adding e-commerce to your business.

Tools, Plugins, & Strategies

If you plan to provide services and products online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful plugins you may want to consider adding to your website or blog include:

• Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• e-Courses (e.g. Courseware)
• Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)

Analyze Data & Feedback

The final step of the process is the collection and analysis of data. By learning to interpret data gathered from existing traffic, you can discover new traffic opportunities.

Hopefully, by now you have already installed an analytics program like Google Analytics on your website. Make sure you understand the metrics and features and can interpret the data.

WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Summary

Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is repeat the same process, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and get better your results.

In summary:

• Start with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by good marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (with 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 as necessary to help build authority, trust, and credibility, and also to increase engagement with visitors,
• 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 traffic automatically to your WordPress website and expand your business online.

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