Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
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 website, all you have to do to automatically begin bringing new traffic is post web content regularly!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of the blueprint. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will understand what makes an expertly configured site different than a professionally configured site. You will also learn how much work is required to make sure that when all is fully configured, you can automatically attract new visitors as you begin publishing web content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming so much more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth learning about any and every opportunity you can to increase your own competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over the competition. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
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 its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was going fine in the widget-making assembly line when all of a sudden, production ground to a complete stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately went to the control box. After staring at the board for no more than 3 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer from his shirt pocket and made a gentle tap about two and half cm from the left edge of the box.
Immediately, everything began to work again.
The manager was grateful and relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged such a ridiculously high fee for less than five minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your website fully configured so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although many experts often make complicated solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up to get certain outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure processes will work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different components including your web server, your WordPress site, and a number of external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Configuring The Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and online services.
External Sites
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all of your content should be published from a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external services to your configuration, content with links pointing back to your website will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your website will be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to help speed up the process 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 Webmasters
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site data with Google Webmaster Tools are set up, use the account information with web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your account and site details, you can add tracking code to WordPress via a plugin and feed data instantly to various other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account with Bing, this information can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to grow a professional business presence online.
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 show you how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
Set up accounts and profiles with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to 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 added to your own traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
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 purposely chosen 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, when WordPress is installed, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to automatically notify the update services list whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
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 sites 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Section)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web site is something you cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers.
Go here for more information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugins For SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their social 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 sharing to your website using WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress – Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
For a detailed article about why it’s important to have a compliant website, refer to this article:
Post Tags & Post Categories
Tags & categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your website’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Process.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google can index your pages 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 can result in increased traffic.
Your 404 Error Page
When visitors enter the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are presented with an error page …
(A 404 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 redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to automatically bring traffic is post fresh content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform the configuration stage of the traffic automation process can take some website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is addressed in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing strategies.
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"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
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