Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is post great content on a regular basis to start generating traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will show you why an expertly configured site is different than a professionally configured website. You will also discover how much work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is fully set up and configured, new visitors will automatically start flowing simply by publishing web content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are exploring any opportunity they can to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very start.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
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 developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was humming along in the gizmo-making workshop when things came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert headed out immediately to the control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for about 3 minutes, the expert then took out a little hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap near the top-right edge of the box.
Immediately, the machinery started working as before.
The floor manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager called the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly repair a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website set up so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social followers from Facebook and LinkedIn 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 driving traffic to your site?)
While the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring settings for the client. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve desired outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure processes will run as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing a plugin, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different components including your web server, your website, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites.
Configuring External Web Properties
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content will get published to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external services to your configuration, content linked back to your site will get automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and business will receive added exposure online, helping you tap into a whole new audience and source of traffic.
Some of these sites and online services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used with 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 website’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, you can add visitor tracking code to WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin and send data automatically to other online applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account has been set up, you can use this information with traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers both a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, 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 web 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 get new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act 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 site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse social feed.
There are various sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, only one service is available …
(Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress will do the rest …
(You can 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 Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view 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 check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically ping all the update services you have listed whenever new posts get 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 unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
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 sites 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks enable your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is guaranteed immunity from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets.
For more information, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, crawl and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to protect content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your options and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic – Other Features To Configure
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Post Tags & Categories
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and post categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is code that only search engines can understand. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – An Additional Source Of Traffic!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong web address into their browser or click on an invalid link, they are presented with an error page …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web 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 inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post great content regularly to automatically bring traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process typically takes some website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To keep reading, click on the link below:
This article is part of an tutorial series designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively with a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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