Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is post fresh content consistently to generate traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of the traffic automation process. 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 site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We will show you what makes an expertly configured site different. You will also learn how much work is required to ensure that when all is set up and configured, you will attract new visitors automatically when you post fresh content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are exploring any advantage available to increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was going well in the gizmo plant when production suddenly stopped.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the wiring board for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny little hammer from his utility belt and made a very gentle tap near the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, the machines returned to normal.
The plant manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The factory manager picked up the phone and dialed the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WP site fully set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other 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 attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems may seem quite easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than simply installing a website and configuring a few settings. It requires 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 to get specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to make sure processes will work as planned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons, or tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts including your web hosting server, your WP site, and a number of external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site will 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 good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and online services.
External Sites & Services – Configuration
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all of your content should be published from one central location (your site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your system, content pointing back to your website is automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator sites. Your site will be given additional exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site 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 site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used with web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and entered your site data, tracking information can be added to WordPress using a plugin and and fed to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site details have been set up, you can use this information to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained 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 web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profile pages with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to many social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various platforms that can be added to your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring Your WordPress 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 key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress administration area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can 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
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 content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view 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 most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly ping all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 sites 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Screen)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Plugin Settings – Configuration
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is safe from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to 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 Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using WordPress plugins.
Most social plugins let you choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, 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.
WordPress – 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 layout and design aspects of your website, some themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Important Sections To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for 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 engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Tags And Post Categories
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google will 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.
Your 404 Error Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they are presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do is publish new content on a consistent basis to start generating more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take many web developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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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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