Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One 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 begin bringing traffic is add content on a regular basis!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to get started 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 existing site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to automatically begin attracting web traffic when you begin to post content on a consistent basis on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting ever more competitive worldwide, it’s worth looking into any and every advantage available to increase your own competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous competitive advantage. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
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 website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with 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 process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let me illustrate this point with a joke.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going fine in the widget-making plant when things suddenly stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, walks directly to the main control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for less than 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a gentle tap about three cm from the right side of the box.
Immediately, everything returns once again to normal.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Demanding to know why they have been charged so much for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be instantly 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 site?)
Although experts often make complicated things look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than simply installing a website and configuring a few settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which services you need to set up and activate to get certain outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to ensure that things function to plan, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts such as your server, your web site, and various external sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings in your web hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess file redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites and services.
External Sites
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content should be published to a central location (your site) and from there, be distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external services to your traffic system, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will receive added exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and source of traffic.
Some third-party sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help 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 WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
Once your account has been set up, you can use this 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 engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, traffic monitoring information can be easily integrated with WordPress using a simple plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account has been set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build 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 at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated 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 attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts and profiles with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and post your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier 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 site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services section
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of 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 in this section can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in 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 main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to ping all the update services you have specified in the Update Services section when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(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 sites linked to from your posts, 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Changing Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find and 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 GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social sharing plugins let you select which 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 shares), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design 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 analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as clicking a few buttons to configure your settings and enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Areas
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do business online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with all legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help understanding why it’s important to have a legally compliant website, refer to this article:
Post Categories & Tags
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post 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 sites find your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engine bots can read XML sitemaps. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin 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.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on an invalid link, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then to begin driving web traffic is add fresh content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is covered in the next article in the WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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