Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is add content on a regular basis to automatically start generating more traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We explained 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 site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site to automatically begin to get new visitors as you start posting web content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and businesses are looking for every advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage over other competitors. For WordPress users, an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the main difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take extra labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were going just fine in the gizmo factory when all of a sudden, the equipment stopped.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without uttering a word, walked immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer and made a gentle tap about 2 cm from the left-hand edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of services rendered for $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such a ludicrous fee for less than five minutes work and 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:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the factory stand to lose when production stopped working and no one on the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website fully configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube 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?)
Although the solution to many problems is often ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services need to be set up to get desired results
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that things work exactly as you have planned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your web site, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like integrating server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Web Properties & Accounts – Configuration
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content should be published from a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, radiate outwards to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external services have been added to your setup, content linked back to your website will be automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and site will receive increased exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some external web properties and online services 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 WordPress site:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with useful data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account, your 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 lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, traffic tracking information can be easily integrated with WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account with Bing Webmaster Tools, you can use this information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional online presence for your business.
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 with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts in order to 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are various solutions you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
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 configured your settings to prevent 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, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(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
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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 in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get 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 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 allows WordPress to automatically ping various update services whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress 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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your post permalinks …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from a cyber-attack.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your site’s ability to rank better in search engines)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your website, many themes also include options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure For Improved Traffic Results
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good 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, you need to ensure that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, refer to this article:
Tags & Post Categories
WordPress post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Categories help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s categories and tags should be set up during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, 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 results.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search bots can understand. 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 WordPress 404 Page
When online visitors type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they are presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then to start generating new web traffic is publish new content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this process typically takes some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
- Website Traffic Blueprint Part Four – A Complete Guide To Getting More Website Traffic Automatically
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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