In Part One of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series overview, we explained that the key to creating an automated web traffic generation machine is to use an “expertly configured” WordPress website.
As we also explained, an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is different than a professionally-configured WordPress web site. An ”expertly configured” WordPress blog is a website that is not only built with the WordPress CMS platform, but has also been expertly set up and configured (either by yourself or professionally) to take advantage of the tremendous power, features and functionality of WordPress and its integration with various services, specifically in areas like SEO, third-party site notification and analytics.
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish great content on a regular basis to automatically bring more traffic!)
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is publish great content regularly to automatically bring web traffic organically.
As outlined in Part One of this article series, the components of this automated website traffic machine are as follows:
- Setup
- Configure
- Automate
- Optimize
In this article, we discuss the “Setup” phase of the automation process. The focus of this section is to help you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, or if you already have an existing site that may or may not have been built using WordPress.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Setup
If You Haven’t Got A Web Presence
If you don’t have a website yet, it’s quite simple … build a WordPress website!
WordPress is the most powerful, flexible, cost-effective and easy-to-use content management system on the planet. We provide many articles, tutorials, and tips on this site about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to grow your business online.
For example, to learn just how popular WordPress is, see this article: WordPress: Usage And Popularity
After choosing to build your website with WordPress, the next step is to choose which type of WordPress platform you will use to run your web presence on.
This is important because there are two types of WordPress platforms available …
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
(WordPress Hosted Or WordPress Self-Hosted?)
WordPress offers website owners a “self-hosted” and a “hosted” option.
The “self-hosted” option means you can download the full-featured WordPress application for free from WordPress.org and host a WordPress site or blog under your own domain name.
In the “hosted option”, WordPress will host your site for free at WordPress.com. There are, however, a number of limitations to what you can and can’t do with your site when it is hosted for free at WordPress.com.
If you plan to build a professional business presence online and you want to set up the traffic system described here, then you should choose the “self-hosted” WordPress version. The benefits of choosing the “self-hosted” option (WordPress.org) far outweigh those of hosting a free site at WordPress.com. You get to have complete control over your web presence and avoid the limitations of the hosted option. Keep in mind that the free hosting limitations can be overcome by upgrading to a paid option, but then why not just start off with a WordPress site hosted on your domain and avoid the hassles of upgrading later?
If You Already Have An Existing Site
If you already own an existing site, check first if the website has been built using WordPress.
If you need help with this step, check this article: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Was Built Using WordPress Software
If your web site was built using WordPress, move to the next step, and make sure that your site’s internal settings have been properly configured. We cover this step in more detail in another tutorial.
If your web site was built using something other than WordPress, you have some decisions to make.
Take a look at the diagram below. It will help you choose where to set up WordPress on your domain …
(Use the above flowchart to decide where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
Basically, you have two choices:
- Replace your existing web site with a WordPress-driven site, or
- Keep your existing web site and add a WordPress blog. This blog will then be expertly configured and used to drive traffic to your main website.
If you choose to keep your existing website and add a WordPress blog, make sure to use the self-hosted version of WordPress, which requires a domain name and webhosting, but allows you to fully configure your blog’s settings and customize the design of your existing site using a suitable WP theme.
To use WordPress as your main website, install the platform in the “root” directory of your domain (e.g. http://www.mydomainname.com).
If you already have a website, then you will want to install WordPress in a subfolder of your domain, e.g. www.mydomainname.com/blog (you can name the subfolder anything you want).
If you already have an existing site that you don’t want to delete or replace with a WordPress site, the other option you have is to set up your WordPress site or blog on an entirely different domain.
This way:
- mydomainname.com – goes to your existing website
- myotherdomain.com – goes to your WordPress site
Once you have set up your WordPress site, the next step is to configure it. This step is addressed in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Two
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing strategies.
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