Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this article 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 website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is add great content consistently to begin attracting web traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the automation process. 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 site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site so you can automatically start to get new traffic just by consistently adding web content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and are looking for every advantage they can to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here is a little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Everything was humming along in the widget-making workshop when things came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what happened, the manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and, without saying a word, headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the board for no more than 2 minutes or so, the expert then took out a tiny hammer from his tool box and made a very gentle tap about 1 inch from the right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialed the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them so much for less than five minutes work and then 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 the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for having spent years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to repair a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress blog fully set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest 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?)
Although many experts often make complex things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up and activated to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options need to be configured to make sure everything works as envisioned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your site, and various external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simple flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your website may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
Once your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
Configuring External Web Properties
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all of your content gets published to a central location (your site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external platforms to your system, content linked back to your website gets automatically fed to these platforms. Your business will benefit from increased exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these external sites and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to help 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, this information can be used with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, account code can be added to all pages in WordPress via a plugin and and fed to various other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account, use the account information with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained 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 online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up in order to configure these as part of 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 attract new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your own web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Section)
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 settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, this section includes only one entry …
(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 and WordPress will do the rest …
(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 have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to notify various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings enable your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
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 website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your sites.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation 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 the design and layout of your website, some themes also include options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many 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 provide built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure For Better Traffic Results
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website complies with government legal requirements.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Post Categories & Tags
Post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your web pages.
(Categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although Google can index your site just using 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 results in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Error Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on a hyperlink pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they will normally be presented with an error page (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add content on a consistent basis to bring more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To keep reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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