WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 3 (Configuration)

This is part 3 of a 5-part series on how to create an automated traffic generation system for your WordPress site. In this tutorial, you will learn how to configure the essential settings of the WordPress automated traffic system.

Web Traffic Blueprint Part 3 - Learn How To Automatically Get More Website Traffic For Your Business

Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your site using WordPress.

In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …

With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish fresh content on a consistent basis to automatically bring more web traffic!

(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish content on a regular basis to start driving web traffic!)

In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. 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 site, and what to do if your website has been built with WordPress.

How to set up WordPress on your domain

(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)

In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you why an expertly configured WordPress site is different, and just what type of work is required to make sure that when everything is set up and configured, you can automatically drive new traffic just by adding web content on a regular basis to your website.

WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase

Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive and businesses are exploring any advantage they believe will help them improve their results and performance online.

Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over the competition. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate competitive 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 website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.

Here’s one way to understand the difference:

With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!

A professional site gives you a web presence, but an expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation.

(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)

Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.

Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.

Knowing Where To Tap

All was going well in the widget assembly line when suddenly, everything ceased working.

No one could figure out what happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert.

Shortly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the board for less than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a single tap about one inch from the right side of the unit.

Immediately, everything began working once more.

The plant manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.

A couple of days later, the manager received a request of payment for services for $5,000.

The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.

The next day, an invoice notice arrived in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:

Invoice

The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.

How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having spent years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and repair a very costly problem?

Similarly, if you could have a site fully configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?

How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?

(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)

While the solution to many challenges can seem ridiculously easy 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 a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:

  • Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
  • Which third-party accounts you need to set up to get specific outcomes
  • Which settings need to be configured to make sure everything will work as planned, etc.

Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise

(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)

Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and much more.

Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your website or blog, and various third-party sites …

The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings

(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)

If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …

A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process

(A simplistic diagram showing the configuration process)

Let’s take a look at these steps.

Web Hosting

We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your web server that affect how your website will handle web traffic …

During the configuration phase, your hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic

(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)

Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.

This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …

Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page  error redirects, etc?

(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)

After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and services.

Third-Party Accounts

The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.

External Accounts

After incorporating these external platforms into your network, content with links pointing back to your site is automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and website benefits from exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.

3rd-Party Sites

Some of these external sites and solutions 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 settings:

Google Search Console

Google Webmaster Tools

(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)

Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of useful data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.

Once your Google Search Console account and site details are set up, the account details can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics

(Google Analytics)

Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.

After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site details has been entered, traffic monitoring information can be integrated with WordPress using a simple plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.

Bing Data And Tools

Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools

(Bing Webmaster Tools)

Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site details, your information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com

(WordPress.com)

As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online presence.

WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various 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 traffic system in the next installment of this article series.

Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites

Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site

(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new traffic to your site)

You will need to have already set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can integrate these with 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 social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site.

You should have accounts and profiles with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.

Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts

There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).

There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to.

(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)

Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.

There are a number of new online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.

For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …

RebelMouse

RebelMouse - Distribute social content to social networks

(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)

RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your page.

Tip

There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your own traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.

Once you have configured your server settings and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your site.

WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog

The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.

Let’s go over some of the important points.

Global Settings – WordPress

By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …

WordPress dashboard menu - Settings

(WordPress settings menu)

General Settings

Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …

Settings Menu - General Settings

(Settings Menu – General Settings)

Writing

The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …

Settings Menu - Writing Settings

(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)

As stated below the Update Services section title,

When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …

Unless you have intentionally 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 text box

By default, this section includes only one entry …

Writing Settings - WordPress Update Services

(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)

WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …

You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!

(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)

Useful Info

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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.

The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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 checkbox is enabled or not.

Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly ping your list of update services whenever a new post gets 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 Screen

(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)

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 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 …

Settings Menu - Discussion Settings Section

(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)

Permalink Settings

Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …

Settings Menu - Permalinks

(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)

Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …

Configuring permalink URLs

(Configuring permalink URLs)

If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, see this tutorial: Changing WordPress Permalinks

Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation

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 some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples

Blog Defender

Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is safe from being attacked.

WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)

Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.

To learn more, go here:

WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO

SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages more indexable …

WordPress Plugin - Yoast SEO

(SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO)

A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your site’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

WordPress Social Plugins

Allowing visitors to share your content with their friends and members of their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.

You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using WordPress plugins

(You can easily add social features to your site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)

WordPress users can easily add social features to their site with WordPress plugins.

Many social sharing plugins allow you to select 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 followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.

WP Theme Features

As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.

For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also provide options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …

Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings and options for improved traffic results

(Many WordPress themes can be configured for better traffic results)

With many themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …

Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button

(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)

Other Areas To Configure For Increased Traffic

Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.

These include the following:

Website Compliance Pages

Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, 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 are making money online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website complies with all government regulations.

Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)

If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:

Categories And Tags

WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.

WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.

(Post categories help search engines classify and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.)

As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.

In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.

Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site

A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find your site’s content …

(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)

(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)

Important

It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap contains code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your site 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 results in increased traffic.

404 Page – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!

When online users type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on an invalid link, they are presented with a 404 error page …

A WordPress 404 Error Page

(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)

A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional pages …

Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.

(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)

Useful Tip

Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.

WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary

Once your website or blog has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then is publish great content consistently to start generating more web traffic organically.

The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …

WP Traffic System - Configuration Checklist

(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)

Info

The skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some 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 article in the series.

This is the end of Part 3

To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:

Web Site Traffic Blueprint Part 3 - How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Info

This article is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.

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