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 platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to automatically generate traffic is post great content on a regular basis!)
In Part 2, we focused on 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 existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will help you understand why an expertly configured WordPress site is different, and what type of work is required to ensure that when all is fully configured, you can automatically attract traffic when you begin to post content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are looking for any opportunity they can to improve their performance and results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage. An expertly configured website gives you an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with an amusing little story.
A Semi-True Story …
All was running smoothly in the widget-making factory when everything came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what was wrong, the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and, without saying a word, went immediately to the control box. After staring at the electronic components for less than 3 minutes, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap near the bottom-right corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything started working as before.
The floor manager was greatly overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant 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 not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for spending years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be automatically 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 site?)
While the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure in order to make sure things work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your site, and a number of third-party sites or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server specifically for handling all 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 site may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your 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 error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites.
External Sites
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all of your content should be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, be distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external sites into your traffic system, content with links pointing back to your website gets automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help speed up the configuration 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 Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use the information to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking code can be added to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account is set up, your details can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, 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 traffic generation system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up in order to 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 and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, 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 well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. 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 an RSS feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
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 technologies and third-party applications that can be added to your own web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to 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 WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website For Traffic
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.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up 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 indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As stated below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services field
By default, this section contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(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, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read 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 main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly ping various update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(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 sites 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(WordPress Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins let you choose which 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 followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a free theme) allow you to configure settings and options for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a few buttons to configure your settings and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Configuring Additional Features Of WordPress For Better Traffic
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do business online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories And Post Tags
WordPress post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.
(Post categories help search engines better classify and index your website, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be set up during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your website to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide readers with a visual map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search engines can interpret. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Page Not Found
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid hyperlink, they will normally be presented with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Error Page can be turned into a useful source of traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website or blog fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do to automatically start attracting traffic is post new content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is explained in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing strategies.
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"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
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