Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish new content on a regular basis to automatically generate traffic!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. We helped you understand 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 existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We explain why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured site, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully configured, you can automatically start getting visitors just by adding new content to your site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and businesses are researching any opportunity they can to improve their results and performance online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business a flying start from the moment your site is launched.
The Configuration Stage 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 web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take additional work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s a little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things were going well in the gizmo-making factory when all of a sudden, everything ground to a stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walked immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the schematics for no more than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a single tap about three inches from the left-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything started working again.
The plant manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The factory manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they were charged such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work. He then 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 #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the business 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 years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP site configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other web properties would be automatically 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 website?)
Although many experts often make difficult situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring a few internal settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up and activated to achieve desired results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything works as envisioned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a solution, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring The Server
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-hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic you may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites.
External Accounts
The concept behind choosing external sites is that all content is published from a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external platforms to your configuration, content linked back to your website will be automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social media accounts, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your business will then be exposed to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some external sites and 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:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, you can use your details with traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, account information can be added to all pages in WordPress via plugins and automatically sent to other useful 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 with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media accounts 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 sites and drive new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can add to your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
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.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global 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 important and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can 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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically ping various update services whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
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 content, 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Configuring Settings – WP Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and bots.
Go here for more information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with others online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social features to your website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you choose which social 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 likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that 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 give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your options and enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic – Additional Configuration
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Tags And Categories
Tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.
(Categories help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories 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 tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
HTML Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although search engines like Google will 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.
Configure Your Site’s 404 Page
When online users type in the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect 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 inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically begin bringing web traffic is publish content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many web professionals months to learn.
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 explained in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively using a WordPress website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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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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