Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add web content regularly to attract more traffic!)
In Part Two, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, 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 site on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. The focus of this section is to help you understand why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured website. You will also learn just what type of work is required to make sure that when all is fully configured, you will drive visitors automatically just by publishing new content on a regular basis on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming increasingly more competitive and businesses are exploring every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage over other competitors. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this point here’s a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is moving along in the gizmo assembly workshop when suddenly, everything grounds to a stop.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately goes towards the control box. After staring silently at the electronic components for less than 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny little hammer and makes a single tap about 3 inches from the left corner of the box.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and returns once more to normal.
The plant manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Furious, the factory manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP web site configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although the solution to many problems can seem quite simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve desired results
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure things function as planned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not just about installing a piece of software, tweaking some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts including your web server, your web site, and a number of external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like configuring spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites.
External Accounts
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content should be published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external services into your traffic network, content linking back to your site will get automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your site will then be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some external sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to help speed up the configuration process 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of important information, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account has been set up, you can use this information to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, account code can be added to all of your web pages in WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and instantly sent 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 Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, your details can be used with traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts in order to 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 get 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 many social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 account.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Configuring WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – 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 or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 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 have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to view 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 here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify your list of update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although this section is 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalink URLs …
(Configuring permalinks)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this tutorial: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your website is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines like Google and Bing to find, crawl and index …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their social networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social sharing plugins let you choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring Settings – WordPress Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also include options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Other Areas
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with all legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
To learn more about how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website, refer to this article:
Post Categories And Tags
Tags and post categories help search engines index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s post tags and categories during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: 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 is mostly code that only search engines can interpret. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your 404 Page
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then is post fresh content regularly to automatically attract web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The skills and knowledge required to perform the configuration process typically takes many website developers a long time to acquire.
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 our series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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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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