Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting more web traffic is post new content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to drive traffic automatically simply by regularly publishing new content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business getting ever more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth looking into any opportunity you can to improve your own performance online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge competitive advantage. An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a flying start from the moment your website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here’s a joke.
A Semi-True Story …
All was going fine in the widget workshop when everything came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for less than 3 minutes or so, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer and made a single tap about two and half inches from the right corner of the box.
Immediately, everything started working as before.
The floor manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a bill for $5,000.
The factory manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a site configured so all you have to do is publish content to it 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 better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for a client. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services need to be set up to achieve desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to ensure that everything works exactly as you have planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. This is because it’s not as simple as installing a solution, clicking a button … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your WP site, and a number of third-party sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like configuring spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
External Accounts
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all of your content will be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you incorporate these external sites into your setup, content pointing back to your website is automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website will then receive increased exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of the sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to speed up the 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 Webmasters
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site details with Google are set up, your 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, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, your account data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site data are set up, you can use this information with web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
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 these features into your traffic system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up before you can integrate these with 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 bring new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can syndicate your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. 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 lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
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 page.
There are various sites and platforms you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated 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 site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 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, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content 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.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically notify various update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings 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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s post permalinks …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: How To Configure Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with 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 some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more details:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your site easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their website with WordPress plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to specify 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 social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
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 the design and layout of your site, some themes also provide built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System – Additional Configuration Areas
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Post Categories And Tags
Tags & categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your website, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s categories and tags should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a an understandable representation of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are code that only search bots can read. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they will typically be greeted with a 404 page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically attract traffic is post great content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes some web developers months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of 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 designed to help you learn how to grow your business online using a WordPress website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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