Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to generate traffic is add new content consistently!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to get started 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 website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration phase of this process. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that new traffic will automatically start flowing when you begin to add web content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming so much more competitive and businesses are looking for any and every advantage available to improve their results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going fine in the gizmo-making assembly line when suddenly, all machines comes to a halt.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert heads directly towards the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring diagrams for 3 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a gentle tap near the left corner of the box.
Immediately, the assembly line returns once more to normal.
The manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Feeling angry, the factory manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Why have they had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a website or blog configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating 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?)
Although the solution to many challenges can seem quite simple once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring settings for the client. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things will work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a button, or tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many components including your web server, your web site, and various external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a brief look at these areas.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step is to set up and configure a number of external sites and online solutions.
External Services
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all of your content will get published from a central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your network, content linked back to your site is automatically published on search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and website benefits from exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites will need to be 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 Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with useful information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, use the information to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add traffic monitoring code to WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and send data automatically to other online applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site details with Bing are set up, the account details can be used with web traffic-related 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 both a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
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 explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up 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.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots 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.
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can add to your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
Configuring WordPress
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(WordPress Update Services)
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 Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get 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 ticked or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping various update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the ways your site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Changing WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is completely safe from cyberattacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and bots.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines 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+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real 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 buttons to their website with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Traffic Theme Settings – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also give you options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Additional Areas Of WordPress To Configure
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle 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 (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website is compliant with government laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article about how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your site, go here:
WordPress Categories & Tags
Post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A visitor site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover more of your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Page Not Found
When online visitors type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is publish content regularly to begin attracting new traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and expertise required to perform this process can take many website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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