Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to start generating more web traffic is add content regularly!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing whenever you publish web content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business getting ever more competitive, it’s worth exploring any advantage that can help you get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has a significant competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is running smoothly in the widget workshop when the machinery suddenly stops.
As no one can figure out what went wrong, the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert heads out directly to the control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy little hammer and makes a very gentle tap near the right side of the box.
Immediately, the machinery returns once more to normal.
The manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a bill for $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Why did he charge them so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work? He promptly 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 the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to assess and repair a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WP website or blog fully configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating 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?)
Although experts often make complicated situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than just installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up to achieve certain results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to make sure everything functions as planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web server, your WordPress site, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your server that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web 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 may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
External Web Properties & Accounts – Configuration
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external services to your traffic network, content linking back to your site will get automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and site will then receive increased exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site to 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your Google Webmaster Tools account is set up, your details can be used with traffic 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, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, your account information can be easily integrated with WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and and sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account with Bing, your account information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, 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 web traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social 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 accounts and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have profiles set up with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
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 social feed.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring 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 affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally configured your settings 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 section
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 of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post to this section …
(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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping various update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, 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)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: How To Change WordPress Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type 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 improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is completely immune from a cyber-attack.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google and Bing find, crawl and index your website …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, crawl and index, it also lets you specify how to present your content in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their social networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins allow you to specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Additional Sections
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with all government laws and regulations.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Tags And Post Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Page
When online users type in the wrong URL or click on a dead link, they are presented with an error page (known as a 404 error page) …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do is publish fresh content regularly to drive more web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform the configuration stage of the traffic automation process can take many website developers months 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 addressed in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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