Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to bring more web traffic is post new content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we discussed 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 site, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically attract traffic when you start to add new content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive worldwide and businesses are exploring every opportunity they can to improve their performance and results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Configuration Process 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take more labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let me illustrate this point with a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
Everything is humming along in the gizmo-making factory when all of a sudden, all machines comes to a complete stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives soon afterward and, without uttering a word, walks directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring board for less than 3 minutes, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a gentle tap about 1 cm from the right-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything springs back to life.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
With great anger, the manager calls the expert. Why were they expected to pay such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress site configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although experts often make complex solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure everything functions as planned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a plugin, tweaking some settings in your admin area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your server, your website, and a number of third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess 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 is to configure various external sites and services.
Third-Party Sites Integration
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all of your content is posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your configuration, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social sites, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your website will then be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to speed up the configuration 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site data with Google have been set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate 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 website’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, traffic monitoring information can be easily integrated with WordPress using plugins and and sent to many 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. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, you can use the account information to automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning 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 explain how to integrate these features into your traffic system in the next installment 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 set up your social accounts before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can You can post your content to many social sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(You can post your content to lots of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various sites and platforms you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Area)
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 specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, 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 …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read 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 traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly notify various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of securing your websites.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines find and index your website …
(WP Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to select which sites visitors can share your content 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 protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Theme Features – Configuration
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 layout and design elements of your website, many themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a few buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
Configuring Additional WordPress Areas
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
To learn more about why it’s important to have a legally compliant website, go here:
Tags & Categories
WordPress tags & post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps you get more traffic.
(Categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When configuring your website to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your 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!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can understand an XML sitemap. 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 can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When online visitors type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on an invalid link, they are presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Error Page can be turned into a useful source of traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is add new content on a consistent basis to automatically start driving traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take some website developers a long time to learn.
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 the 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 aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online using a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing strategies.
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