Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to generate web traffic is post new content regularly!)
In Part 2, 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 things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that new visitors will automatically start flowing just by regularly publishing new content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive, it’s worth looking into any advantage available to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website 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 describe the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is running smoothly in the gizmo-making workshop when everything suddenly comes to a stop.
As no one can figure out what’s gone wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walks immediately to the main control box. After staring at the schematics for 3 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer from his utility belt and makes a single tap about one cm from the right-hand edge of the unit.
Immediately, every machine inside the plant returns to normal.
The plant manager is greatly overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Angrily, the factory manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Demanding to know why the expert has charged them such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social followers from Facebook and Twitter and dozens of other 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although the solution to many problems can seem ridiculously easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring site settings for the client. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up and activated to achieve certain outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that everything works exactly as you want, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, clicking on a button or two, or configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your server, your website, and a number of third-party sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
Configuring External Services
The purpose of adding external sites is that all content should be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external services to your traffic system, content linked back to your site will get automatically published on your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business receives exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site to 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 before configuring your site:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with essential information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account, your information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and feed data automatically to many other online applications and web properties.
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 with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, this information can be used with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online 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 with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up in order to integrate these with 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.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(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 have specifically configured your site settings 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 text area
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress will do the rest …
(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 have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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 traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is 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)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
WP Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help your site generate more traffic
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is safe from a cyber-attack.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
To learn more, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can 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 and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads 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 design and layout of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content 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)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do any kind of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have created a detailed article about adding legal pages to WordPress here:
WordPress Post Categories And Tags
WordPress categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications discover your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap contains code that only search engine bots can read. Although Google will 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.
Your 404 Page
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on a hyperlink pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your website or blog has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do to begin bringing new web traffic is add fresh content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes some website professionals months 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 addressed in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business online with a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing methods.
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