Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is post great content regularly to automatically begin attracting new traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically start driving new traffic just by consistently adding new content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and businesses are looking for any opportunity they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge competitive advantage. An expertly configured website gives you an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes The Difference
There is a 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All was humming along in the gizmo plant when all equipment suddenly came to a halt.
No one could figure out what is wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walked immediately to the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for no more than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about one cm from the right side of the box.
Immediately, the whole workshop lit up and returned to normal.
The floor manager was grateful and relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one in the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to get paid fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other 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 driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges is often quite easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that things will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires 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 just about installing a plugin, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your web server, your site, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your server that affect how your site 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 positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your website may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Accounts
The concept behind adding external sites is that all content will get published to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your setup, content with links pointing back to your website will be automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your site will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Webmasters account and entering site data, you can use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, traffic tracking code can be added to WordPress via plugins used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site details have been set up, use the details with traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers users a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful 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 these features into your automated web traffic generation system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts in order to 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 get new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profile pages with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your own traffic system. 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 external service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, 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 includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly ping all the update services you have listed when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although discussion settings 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Changing WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is guaranteed immunity from cyber-attacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugin)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing to your site with WordPress plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring Settings – WP Themes
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 design and layout of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Areas To Consider
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
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 seriously affect your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, refer to this article:
WordPress Tags And Categories
WordPress tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is mostly just a bunch of code that only search engine bots can interpret. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid hyperlink, they will normally be presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then is add great content regularly to attract more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The skills and knowledge required to perform this process can take many website professionals a long time to acquire.
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 covered in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
- Website Traffic Blueprint Part 4 – How To Create An Automated Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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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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