Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to automatically attract more web traffic is publish web content consistently!)
In Part 2, we looked at 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 site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. The focus of this section is to help you understand why an expertly configured site is different than a professionally configured one, and what type of work is required to make sure that when everything is set up and configured, you can attract new visitors automatically simply by consistently posting new content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale and are researching any opportunity they can to get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. With an expertly configured website, your business has a flying start as soon as your site is launched.
The Configuration Stage 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 builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the main difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
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.
Allow me to illustrate this with a story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things are humming along in the widget assembly plant when everything grinds to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for no more than 3 minutes or so, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a single tap near the right-hand side of the box.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and returns once again to normal.
The plant manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Angry and bordering on a sense of outrage, the manager dials the expert. Why did he charge them such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice 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 #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for having spent years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a website set up so all you had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other 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 website?)
While the solution to many problems may seem ridiculously simple in hindsight, 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 some basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that things will work exactly as you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, configuring some options and settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many parts such as your web server, your WP site, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If 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 in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your web server that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your website can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like integrating spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites and services.
Third-Party Sites Configuration
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all of your content will be posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your traffic system, content pointing back to your site will get automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some third-party web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the process 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 Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site details are set up, this information can be used to automate traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, you can add your account information to WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data instantly to other online applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site data have been set up, this information can be used to automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. 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 can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up in order to configure these as part of 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 sites and drive new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are loads of social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your social feed.
There are various platforms you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and often overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Area)
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 purposely chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or 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.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to notify your update services list when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WordPress permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins let you select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your site, some themes also provide built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Additional Sections To Configure
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.
(WordPress post 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 post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google will 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 results in increased traffic.
Your 404 Page
When online visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do is add web content consistently to begin bringing web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this process can take many web professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in our 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 designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing methods.
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