Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to automatically attract new traffic is publish great content consistently!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured one. You will also learn how much work is required to make sure that when everything is set up and fully configured, you will bring new visitors automatically simply by regularly publishing fresh content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business getting so much more competitive, it’s worth looking into any advantage that can help you improve your results and performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over the competition. With an expertly configured website, you have an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
The Configuration Process Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and 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 expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s a little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going well in the gizmo assembly factory when everything comes to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walks immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the board for less than 2 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny little hammer and makes a very gentle tap about three inches from the right edge of the unit.
Immediately, all the machinery in the assembly plant starts working once more.
The plant manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Outraged and bewildered, the manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors consistently to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP web site configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other 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?)
Although the solution to many problems may seem ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure things will work how you have planned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a plugin, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web hosting server, your website or blog, and various external sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a better look at what’s involved.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites or online solutions.
External Accounts
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content should be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your network, content linking back to your website will get automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your site will then be exposed to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help 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 before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, use your information with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, traffic tracking information can be integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing, your information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, 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 web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up before you can 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 bring new traffic to your site.
Set up accounts with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your 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 – WordPress
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – 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
***
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 in this section can influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content 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 main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
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 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)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to 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 WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your site’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing to your website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by liking your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also give you built-in options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Areas For WordPress Sites
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, you need to ensure that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog here:
Categories And Post Tags
Post tags and categories help search engines classify and index your website, which helps you get more traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although Google can 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.
404 Error Page – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!
When visitors searching for your site enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is post new content consistently to begin attracting traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals a long time to learn.
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 addressed in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
***