Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is publish great content on a regular basis to automatically begin attracting more web traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on critical setup decisions. We helped you understand 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 website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that traffic will automatically start flowing just by regularly posting web content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business becoming ever more competitive, it’s worth exploring any opportunity you can to improve your performance online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here is a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is humming along in the gizmo assembly line when suddenly, everything ceases working.
No one can figure out what went wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads straight towards the control box. After staring silently at the board for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer from his shirt pocket and makes a very gentle tap about 2 inches from the left-hand edge of the control unit.
Immediately, everything springs back to life.
The manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Bewildered and bordering on a sense of outrage, the factory manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly 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 number one challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for spending years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a blog set up and configured so all you had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online 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 driving traffic to your site?)
While the solution to many problems often seems quite simple in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services need to be set up to get desired outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure everything will function as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a solution, tweaking some settings in your admin area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many different components including your web hosting server, your site, and a number of external sites or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your website may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these, the next step is to configure a number of third-party sites.
Configuring External Services
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all content should be published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, radiate outwards to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external services to your network, content linking back to your website will be automatically fed to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website benefits from exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some of the sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your settings 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 Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Webmasters account and entering site details, this information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your account, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data instantly to various other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site data with Bing are set up, use this information to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers both 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 a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media accounts before you can 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 get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profiles with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can You can syndicate your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary 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 allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
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 website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications that can be added to your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Screen)
As described 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 configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services section
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
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
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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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds 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 read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks enable your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalink URLs …
(Configuring permalinks)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site 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 web sites.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop 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.
Go here for more info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site 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 Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with their own friends and networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins)
You can add social sharing features to your website easily with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you select which 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 shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors 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 help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your website, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a few buttons and enabling the function …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Other Important Sections To Configure
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
We have created a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site here:
Post Categories & Tags
WordPress post tags and post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A 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 your online content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they will typically be presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do to generate web traffic is publish web content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise required to perform this process can take some website professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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