Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to bring web traffic is post web content consistently!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We explained the best way to start 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 was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that new traffic will automatically start flowing as you start to publish content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive and businesses are exploring any advantage they believe will help them increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, an expertly configured website means having an immediate competitive advantage from the very beginning.
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 an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let me illustrate this point with a story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is humming along in the gizmo-making assembly line when things come to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without uttering a word, immediately walks towards the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for about 5 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a little hammer from his utility belt and makes a single tap about one cm from the right corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything comes back to life.
The floor manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Angry to the point of feeling outrage, the manager calls the expert. Why did he charge them such a ridiculously high fee for so little time delivering such minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
While many experts often make complicated things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve certain outcomes
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that things function as expected, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing a solution, clicking a button, or tweaking some settings in your admin area … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your web server, your web site, and various third-party sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess and error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and services.
Integration With External Web Properties
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all of your content should be published from a central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external services into your network, content linked back to your site will get automatically fed to search, social and aggregator sites. Your site will then be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and online platforms will need to be set up before configuring your settings to help 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 WordPress site:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with important information, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account with Google Search Console have been set up, this information can be used with 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 performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, you can add tracking code to WordPress via a simple plugin and feed data instantly to many other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, you can use this information with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) 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 are planning to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail further below and during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
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 page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please 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 external site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your site 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 box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get 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 most important setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to automatically ping your update services list whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: How To Configure WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add almost every kind 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 WordPress site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is completely immune from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to bots and hackers.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by improving your website’s ability to rank better in search engines)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with others can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their website with WordPress plugins)
You can add social sharing to your website easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also provide built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a few buttons to enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Categories & Post Tags
Post categories & tags help search engines better classify and index your web pages, which improves traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s tags and categories during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A visitor site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is mostly code that only search engine bots can understand. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Your 404 Page
When online users type in the wrong web address or click on links pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website or blog expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add fresh content consistently to attract more web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process can take some website professionals months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click here:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively using a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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