Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add new content on a regular basis to automatically start generating new web traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of this process. 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 site, and what to do if your existing website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site to automatically get new traffic when you begin posting new content on a regular basis on your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business becoming ever more competitive, it’s worth looking into any advantage that can help you get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over other competitors. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
Things were going well in the widget-making factory when everything suddenly came to a halt.
No one could figure out what was wrong and so the manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool belt and made a very gentle tap near the right side of the box.
Immediately, all the machinery sprang back to life.
The floor manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services rendered totalling $5,000.
The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such a ludicrous fee for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress web site set up so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other 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 the solution to many problems may seem ridiculously easy in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to ensure that everything functions as expected, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts including your web server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your server that affect how your site will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your business may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and services.
External Services
The concept behind setting up external sites is that all of your content should be posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will automatically get syndicated to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your system, content pointing back to your website will be automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content will receive increased exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account, use the information to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add visitor tracking information to WordPress using a plugin and send data instantly to various other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account, the account details 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 option if you are planning to grow a professional business presence online.
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 show you how to integrate this into your traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts 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 drive new traffic to your site.
You should have pages set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to 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 external service accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog For Traffic
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 of the important points.
Global Settings
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Writing Settings – WordPress 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 …
(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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically notify various update services whenever new posts are 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 …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here: Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at 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 handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is guaranteed immunity from a cyber attack.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and botnets.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web content easier for search engines like Google to index …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s ability to rank better in search engines)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins let you choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress – Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, many themes also provide options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and unwelcome 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 commercial activity online, you need to make sure that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, see this article:
Tags And Post Categories
Categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be set up during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A visitor site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Error Page
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on a dead link, they are greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do is post great content on a regular basis to automatically attract traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take many website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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