Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using WordPress.
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 begin attracting traffic is add great content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically attract new traffic simply by regularly adding new content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are researching any and every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has an immediate advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website 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 understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going according to schedule in the widget assembly factory when everything grinds to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walks directly towards the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for less than 2 minutes, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a very gentle tap about two cm from the top-right edge of the unit.
Immediately, the assembly line returns to normal.
The floor manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives a request of payment for services for $5,000.
With a sense of outrage, the manager dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a ludicrous fee for less than five minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress website configured so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be instantly 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 website?)
While experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up to achieve certain outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured in order to ensure that things work as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts including your web hosting server, your website, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website 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 simplistic diagram of the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of external sites and online solutions.
3rd-Party Solutions
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content will get posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external platforms have been added to your network, content pointing back to your website gets automatically syndicated to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and site benefits from added exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to speed up the process 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 site’s settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site data, the details can be used with web traffic settings and notifications 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 campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, traffic monitoring data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin and and fed to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account with Bing, use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers 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 can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated web traffic system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should set up accounts with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various sites and platforms you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As described in this 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, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can 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 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 influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly notify various update services whenever new posts are 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 unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugin Settings – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is guaranteed immunity from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(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 website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, crawl and 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+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress – Themes
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 design and layout aspects of your website, some themes also provide built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with 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 configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article on why it’s important to have a legally compliant website here:
WordPress Post Tags & Categories
WordPress post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your web pages.
(WordPress post categories help search engines better organize and index your website, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your website to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories you have set up.
Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can read XML sitemaps. Although Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your WordPress 404 Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they will normally be presented with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found 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 admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is publish new content on a regular basis to automatically begin attracting more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes some web developers months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business online and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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