Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to bring web traffic is post fresh content regularly!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We will explain what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different from a professionally configured website. You will also learn how much work needs to be done to ensure that when all is fully configured, you can attract new visitors automatically simply by regularly posting fresh content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide, it’s worth looking into any advantage that can help you increase your own competitiveness online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage over the competition. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is more work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with an amusing anecdote.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things were running smoothly in the widget workshop when all equipment suddenly ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the box for about 3 minutes, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny little hammer and made a single tap near the left corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The plant manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The factory manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be automatically 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 website?)
While the solution to many problems can seem ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve specific results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything will work as expected, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your web site, and various external sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like integrating spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites or online services.
External Services
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content is published to one central location (your site) and from there, it radiates outwards automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external platforms to your configuration, content linking back to your site gets automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of important data, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account and site details with Google Webmaster Tools are set up, this information can be used with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site data has been entered, you can add traffic tracking code to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data automatically to various other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account has been set up, the details can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your 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 sites and attract new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
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 own RebelMouse page.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated 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 specifically configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section displays 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 …
(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
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 influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly ping the list of update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion Settings
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 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to bots and hackers.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web content easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to protect content 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 grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, many themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your pages is as easy as clicking a few buttons and enabling the function …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Other Sections
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome 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 plan to), it’s important that your site complies with all legal requirements.
(Is Your Site Legally Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article about why it’s important to have a compliant website here:
Categories & Tags
Tags and categories help search engines better classify and index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin 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.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong URL into their browser or click on a dead link, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect 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 page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is publish new content consistently to drive more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is explained in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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