Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to start generating new web traffic is publish web content consistently!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration stage of this process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to drive new traffic automatically as you begin posting new content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming ever more competitive, it’s worth exploring any and every advantage that can help you improve your own results and performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a significant 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 one way to describe the main difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take more labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let me illustrate this point with a story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is running smoothly in the gizmo assembly line when things suddenly stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately walks to the control box. After staring silently at the board for no more than 2 minutes, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a very gentle tap near the right edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything returns once more to normal.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a service bill for $5,000.
Angry to the point of feeling outrage, the manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged so much for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social followers from sites like Facebook and LinkedIn 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 driving traffic to your site?)
While the solution to many challenges is often quite easy once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up and activated to get desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to make sure everything functions as expected, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your server, your WP site, and various external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your 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 you may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess file redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure a number of external sites.
External Sites
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content is posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic system, content linking back to your website will get automatically published on your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and business will be exposed to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some third-party sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to help save time 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 settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with essential data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site details with Google Webmasters have been set up, your account information can be used with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, you can add visitor tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via plugins and feed data automatically to various other online applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account and entering site details with Bing, use your information with 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 Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow 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 show you how to integrate this into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts 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 drive new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts and profile pages with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 account.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog For Traffic
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, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings 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 section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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 in this section can influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify the update services list whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Setting Up WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with their networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing to your site using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to 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 ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation 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 include options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Areas
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted 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 plan to), you need to ensure that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have created a detailed article about how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog here:
Categories & Tags
Tags and categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover your web content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is mostly filled with code that only search engine bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your pages 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 Error Page – Another Source Of Traffic!
When online users enter the wrong web address or click on a hyperlink pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will typically be presented with an error – page not found message …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do is publish great content on a consistent basis to automatically start driving traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process can take some website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is covered in the next section of the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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