Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is publish content on a regular basis to drive more web traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. 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 website, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site so you can get new visitors automatically as you begin posting content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are exploring any and every advantage they believe will help them get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. An expertly configured WordPress site gives your business a flying start from the moment your website is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional 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, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was going well in the widget-making assembly line when things suddenly ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately went to the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about two and half cm from the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The floor manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for less than 5 minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for investing years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be instantly 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts need to be set up to achieve certain results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that things will work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not as simple as installing a solution, tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of a number of different parts such as your web server, your website or blog, and a number of external sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your webhosting account that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server 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 you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step is to configure various third-party sites and services.
External Accounts
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content is published from one central location (your site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your network, content with links pointing back to your website will get automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator sites. Your business will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of these 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential data, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your Google Webmaster Tools account, you can use this information to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up Google Analytics, you can add traffic tracking information to all of your web pages in WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and feed data automatically to many other applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing Webmaster Tools, this information can be used with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, 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 system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media accounts before you can 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 pages and drive new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can syndicate your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services section
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in 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 excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – 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 articles, 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
Permalinks enable your site to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of 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, securing your websites is something you cannot ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website 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 pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also provide built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Important Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
Categories And Post Tags
Post tags & categories help search engines better organize and index your website, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors enter the wrong web address into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do to automatically start generating traffic is publish great content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals a long time to learn.
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 WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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