Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 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 blog, all you have to do to automatically drive traffic is add new content on a consistent basis!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started 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 site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing when you post content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are looking for any and every advantage available to improve their performance and results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has an immediate advantage from the very start.
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 web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was going just fine in the widget assembly workshop when everything ground to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately headed to the main control box. After staring silently at the board for no more than 2 minutes, the expert then produced a little hammer from his utility belt and made a very gentle tap about one cm from the right corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything returned to normal.
The plant manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialled the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such a ridiculously high fee for less than 5 minutes work and promptly 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 new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a web site set up so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately 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 the solution to many challenges may seem quite simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up to achieve desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to make sure everything will function how you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your server, your web site, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart all the steps 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.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your webhosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, 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 external sites.
Configuring External Services
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content should be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external services to your setup, content pointing back to your site will get automatically added to these platforms. Your content and website will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and solutions 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, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account, use this information with traffic 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 traffic results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking information can be integrated with WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and instantly sent to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site details are set up, the information can be used to automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, 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 the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads 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 sharing tools.
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse website.
There are various solutions you can add to your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration 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 site’s settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to set up 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 indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress takes care of 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
***
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 in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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 check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to ping all the update services you have specified in the Update Services box when new posts are 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 …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
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 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings enable your site to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about 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
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is immune from a cyber-attack.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily using WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social 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 plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Additional Sections Of WordPress To Configure For Improved Traffic Flow
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding the importance of having a legally compliant website, go here:
WordPress Post Tags & Categories
WordPress post tags & post categories help search engines better organize and index your web pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s categories and tags should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
When considering 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 set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover your online content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engine bots can read an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins 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.
404 Page Not Found – Another Source Of Web Traffic!
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong URL or click on links pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error 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 plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do to generate more web traffic is publish content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively with a WordPress website and proven web marketing methods.
Would You Like To Get Automatically Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published? Then Subscribe Using The Form Below!
***
"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
***