Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to begin bringing traffic is add fresh content consistently!)
In Part 2, we looked at critical setup decisions. 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 website, and what to do if your existing site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to begin attracting new traffic automatically when you post fresh content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are looking for any and every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things are working according to schedule in the gizmo manufacturing plant when production suddenly stops.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives shortly after being summoned and, without saying a word, immediately walks towards the main control box. After staring at the control unit for 3 minutes, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a single tap near the left corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything returns to normal.
The floor manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Bewildered and bordering on a sense of outrage, the factory manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for less than five minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for investing years building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a website set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks 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?)
While experts often make complicated situations and problems look easy, 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 basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up to get certain outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure everything will work as expected, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not just about installing one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different parts such as your web server, your web site, and various external sites and online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the steps involved in 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 hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting 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 and/or online solutions.
Integration With External Solutions
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content will be published from one central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed 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 linked back to your site will be automatically published on search, social and aggregator accounts. Your site will be given exposure to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some of the sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to help speed up the process 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 settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, this information 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.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, you can add traffic tracking code to WordPress via a plugin and send data automatically to other online applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account has been set up, you can use your account information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic generation system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your own web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified 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
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 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 RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping your update services list when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although discussion settings 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Permalinks enable WordPress to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: How To Set Up Your WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your website, many themes also provide options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure options and settings for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Configuring Other WordPress Sections
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 the following:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have written a detailed article about adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
WordPress Post Tags & Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your website’s post categories and tags during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong URL or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they will typically be greeted with a 404 Not Found page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do to automatically bring web traffic is add great content regularly.
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 …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this process can take many web 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 section of the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To keep reading, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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