Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is publish great content regularly to start driving traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of the automation process. We helped you understand 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 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site so you can automatically attract web traffic when you publish content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are researching any and every advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
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 builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to understand the key difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
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 kind of expert knowledge.
Let me illustrate this point with a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were going well in the gizmo-making factory when everything came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and walked directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for what seemed like 3 minutes or less, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a single tap near the bottom-right edge of the box.
Immediately, all the machinery in the assembly plant started working once more.
The plant manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The factory manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main 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 production stopped functioning and no one on the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress blog set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be automatically 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 website?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems quite simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure things work exactly as you want, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many components such as your web server, your website or blog, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your web hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like configuring 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 errors, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites or online services.
Integration With External Web Properties
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external services have been added to your system, content pointing back to your website will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the third-party web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site 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 Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools 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.
Once your account is with Google are set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, your account data can be easily integrated with WordPress using a plugin used with other applications.
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 with Bing have been set up, use this information with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social accounts 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 sites and drive new visitors to your site.
You should have pages set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(There are lots of social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your own traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in the Update Services 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, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress takes care of 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
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, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get 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 in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services field when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to bring more visitors to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is immune from cyber attacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more indexable …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing to your website with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins let you specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Traffic Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your settings and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure For Improved Traffic
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do business online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website, go here:
Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & categories help search engines index your website, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Visitor Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your website content …
(Site Map – great for site 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 Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins 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.
Configure Your WordPress 404 Page
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong web address or click on a dead hyperlink, they will normally be greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do to automatically begin bringing new web traffic is post web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business online using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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