Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish new content on a regular basis to automatically start generating new web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of this 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 website, and what to do if your existing website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section of the series, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will help you understand what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different. You will also learn how much work is required to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, traffic will automatically start flowing when you post content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting increasingly more competitive worldwide, it’s worth learning about every advantage that can help you get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s an amusing little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was going fine in the widget-making workshop when all of a sudden, everything ground to a stop.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and, without uttering a word, immediately went to the control box. After staring silently at the wiring board for less than 2 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy little hammer and made a gentle tap near the right corner of the unit.
Immediately, the assembly line came back to life.
The manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services totalling $5,000.
The factory manager picked up the phone and dialled the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
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 the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your website set up so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other online properties would be automatically 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?)
While the solution to many challenges often seems quite easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up to achieve desired results
- Which options need to be configured to ensure that everything will work exactly as you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as simple as installing a plugin, tweaking some settings in your admin area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your website, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings in your hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business will attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating 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 emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
External Sites & Solutions – Configuration
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content should be published from a central location (your site) and from there, radiate outwards to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you incorporate these external services into your configuration, content linking back to your website is automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website will benefit from exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some of the sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to save time 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and reports about your website.
Once your Google Search Console account and site data are set up, you can use the account information with web 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 site’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up Google Analytics, you can add visitor tracking code to all of your pages in WordPress using plugins and send data instantly to many other useful applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site data, your details can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to grow a professional web 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 with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new traffic to your site.
Set up accounts with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse page.
There are many different platforms that can be added to your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu 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 can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
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 ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to ping various update services whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
WordPress Plugin Settings – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to 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 dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more indexable …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and 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+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your site easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social sharing plugins let you choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring Settings – WordPress Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, many themes also give you built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories And Tags
WordPress post tags and categories help search engines index your website, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your website’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Only search engines can understand XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Page
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they will typically be greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do to start generating more web traffic is publish great content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes many website professionals 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 explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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