Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is post great content on a regular basis to automatically begin attracting new web traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of the automation process. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will show you why an expertly configured site is different, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically drive traffic simply by posting new content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are exploring any advantage available to increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their website is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the main difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here is an anecdote.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things were going fine in the widget assembly plant when everything came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the control unit for about 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer and made a very gentle tap about two inches from the right-hand corner of the unit.
Immediately, the plant started working once again.
The floor manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received an invoice for $5,000.
The factory manager picked up the phone and rang the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice 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 drive visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress website configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
While many experts often make difficult situations and problems look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to figure things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get desired results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to make sure everything works as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating new 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 complicated. This is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring a plugin, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web hosting server, your site, and various third-party sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we were to create a simplified diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is configuring settings and options in your server that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your webhosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and online services.
External Sites
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all content is published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it then gets distributed automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your system, content linked back to your website gets automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content will receive exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some web properties and online services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to 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 site:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify 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.
Once your account with Google Webmasters have been set up, this information can be used to automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, visitor tracking information can be added to all of your web pages in WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and instantly sent to other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site data, use your details with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already 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.
Make sure you have accounts and profiles set up with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add a feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post to this section …
(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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
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)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WP Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from a cyber attack.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with members of their social networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
You can easily add social sharing features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to choose which 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 likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress – 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 layout and design of your website, some themes also include options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features)
Additional Configuration Features For WordPress Traffic
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good 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 do business online, you need to ensure that your website is found to comply with all regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article on adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
Post Tags And Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(WordPress post categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s post categories and tags during the Website Planning Phases.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags that have been set up.
HTML Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your website 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. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When online visitors type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on a link pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is add web content on a regular basis to bring web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and knowledge required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take many web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
- Web Traffic Blueprint Part 4 – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Traffic Automatically With WordPress
This article is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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