Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to bring web traffic is add new content consistently!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. You will understand why an expertly configured site is different from a professionally configured website, and just what kind of work needs to be done to ensure that when all is set up and fully configured, traffic will automatically start flowing as you begin publishing new content consistently to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive, it’s worth exploring any opportunity you can to increase your own competitiveness online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over the competition. Having an expertly configured website gives you an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to explain the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is going well in the widget assembly plant when everything grinds to a sudden halt.
As no one can figure out what’s wrong, the manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walks immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the control unit for less than 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy little hammer from his pocket and makes a very gentle tap about 1 inch from the top-left side of the box.
Immediately, all machinery inside the plant begins working as before.
The manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a bill for $5,000.
Bordering on outrage, the factory manager dials the expert. Why were they charged such a ridiculously high fee for so little time delivering such a minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement 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 factory stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for spending years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a blog set up 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 immediately 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 driving traffic to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems can seem quite easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than simply installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get desired results
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure things will work as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a plugin, clicking a button, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different parts including your server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web-hosting account that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step is to configure various external sites.
External Accounts
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all of your content gets published from a central location (your site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external services to your traffic system, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically fed to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social sites, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and website will be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with useful information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use your details 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 website’s results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and send data instantly to many other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, you can use the details with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. 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 article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts 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 get new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are various sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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
***
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 in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify various update services whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your permalinks …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is immune from a cyber attack.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and bots.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easier for search engines like Google to index …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation 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 design and layout elements of your website, many themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a few buttons to 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
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Tags And Post Categories
WordPress post categories and tags help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s categories and tags should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Site Map
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications discover your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can interpret XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins 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.
Your Site’s 404 Page
When online visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a dead link, they will typically be presented with an error page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is publish web content regularly to automatically bring more web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take many web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
Subscribe To WPCompendium.org And Get Notified Of New WordPress Tutorials!
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***