Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to attract new traffic is post great content consistently!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase. We explained 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured to ensure that new web traffic will automatically start flowing just by consistently adding fresh content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are researching every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge competitive advantage. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has a flying start and an immediate advantage online.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a 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’s one way to describe the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
All was humming along in the widget-making manufacturing plant when all of a sudden, the machines ground to a halt.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the electronic components for 5 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny hammer and made a gentle tap near the left side of the box.
Immediately, the machinery returned to normal.
The manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them so much for less than five minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one on the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a site set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and dozens of other web 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges can seem ridiculously simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to make sure processes will work as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a plugin, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your website, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like configuring server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
External Accounts
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all of your content will get posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external services to your configuration, content with links pointing back to your site will be automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to 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 Webmasters
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site details have been set up, this information can be used with web traffic-related 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 traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account and site details, your account information can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin and and sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account, use the details to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional web 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 these features into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your various 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up profiles with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are many different solutions that can be incorporated into your traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring WordPress
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to website 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 chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
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 will do the rest …
(You can 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 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, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect 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 a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify various update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugin Settings – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google find and index your web pages …
(SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. When properly configured, this 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 sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social features to your website easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Themes
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 design and layout elements of your site, some themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic – Additional Configuration Steps
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Tags & Categories
Post tags and post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but 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 can index your pages 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 can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong URL into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a destination on your site 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 redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 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 several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post web content regularly to drive traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform this process can take many web developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is explained in the next section of the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing methods.
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