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 One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish content regularly to automatically bring more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. 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 was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We will help you understand why an expertly configured site is different, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is set up and fully configured, you will bring web traffic automatically as you start to publish fresh content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming so much more competitive, it’s worth learning about any opportunity you can to increase your own competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything is moving along in the widget-making factory when things come to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately walks towards the main control box. After staring at the wiring board for about 2 minutes, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer and makes a very gentle tap about 1 inch from the right edge of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine springs back to life.
The manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services totalling $5,000.
Bewildered, the manager dials the expert. Why had he charged them so much for less than 5 minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one in the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to be compensated fairly for spending years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP website or blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up to get desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will run as expected, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a button, or configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your web server, your site, and various external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating 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 email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
Configuring External Services
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all of your content will be published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external services into your setup, content with links pointing back to your website gets automatically posted to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social media accounts, even to users of the platform itself. Your business receives exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some web properties and online services will need to be 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, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, the details can be used with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, you can add traffic tracking information to WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and feed data instantly to other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account has been with Bing have been set up, you can use this information to automate web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. 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 features, 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 automated web traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social 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 and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are many social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your RebelMouse website.
There are various platforms that can be added to your web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu 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 listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As described below 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 settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – 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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog 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 most important setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to ping the update services list whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(WP SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find 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.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors 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 traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a few buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Compliant?)
To learn more about how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress site, see this article:
Tags & Post Categories
WordPress tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find more of your web content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although Google can index your site just using 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 results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Page
When online users enter the wrong web address into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they will typically be presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is post fresh content on a regular basis to start attracting traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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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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