Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add content regularly to start generating traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. 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 existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing as you begin to add web content on your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming so much more competitive, it’s worth exploring any and every advantage that can help you get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage. With an expertly configured website, you have a flying start and a significant competitive advantage online.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to understand the key difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take extra labor 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.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything is moving along in the widget workshop when things suddenly grinds to a stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately walks to the control box. After staring silently at the circuit board for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer and makes a gentle tap near the left side of the unit.
Immediately, every machine starts working once more.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives a request for payment of services rendered for the amount of $5,000.
Bordering on outrage, the manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than five minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a web site fully configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although many experts often make complex situations and problems look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to get specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will run the way you have planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your website, and various third-party sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your web server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites.
External Accounts
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content should be published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your system, content pointing back to your site will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website will be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your 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 before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account has been set up, you can use this information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, visitor tracking code can be added to WordPress via plugins used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your 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 pages and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your site.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, 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 contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section …
(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 in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary 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 content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to read the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services box whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s post permalinks …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your 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 cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
For more information, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving how search engines like Google find, classify and index your website …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing 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 buttons to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by linking or tweeting 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 traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings and options for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other WordPress Areas
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories And Tags
Tags & post categories help search engines index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.)
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 Stage.
When configuring your website to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although Google can index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – An Additional Source Of Traffic!
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they will normally be greeted with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then to automatically bring more web traffic is post web content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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