Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to start attracting traffic is publish great content consistently!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. 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 existing website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration phase of this process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically start getting new visitors whenever you publish fresh content on your website.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale and are researching any advantage they believe will increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business an immediate competitive advantage from the very beginning.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to describe the key difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in 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, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is working according to schedule in the gizmo assembly workshop when everything suddenly comes to a stop.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives within 20 minutes and heads out directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for less than 2 minutes, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer from his tool belt and makes a single tap near the left-hand side of the box.
Immediately, everything begins to work once more.
The manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who 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.
With great anger, the factory manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Demanding to know why the expert has charged them such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines stopped functioning and no one on the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a site configured so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems quite simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than simply installing a website and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to get specific outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured in order to ensure that everything will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved. 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.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts including your web server, your website or blog, and a number of external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your webhosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your website can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
Configuring External Web Properties
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content is posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external services to your configuration, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically fed to these platforms. Your content receives increased exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of the sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google, you can use this information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) 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 behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, traffic tracking information can be integrated with WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account, you can use the information with web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and attract new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse website.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Area)
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 intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section …
(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
This section affects how your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping all the update services you have listed when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
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 articles, 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress – Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is safe from cyber attacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to bots and hackers.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social share plugins allow you to choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
Additional Features Of WordPress To Configure For Improved Traffic
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
For a detailed article on the importance of having a legally compliant website, go here:
Categories & Post Tags
WordPress post tags & post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post categories and tags should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When configuring your site to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google will index your pages just from 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.
404 Error Page – Another Source Of Traffic!
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error 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 System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do is post great content regularly to automatically begin bringing more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take some website developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business with a WordPress-powered website and proven online marketing strategies.
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