Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting new traffic is add new content regularly!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically start bringing new visitors when you begin to post content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and are exploring every advantage they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a significant 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 describe the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let me illustrate this point with an amusing story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything was running smoothly in the widget-making factory when the machines suddenly stopped.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for less than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer from his utility belt and made a single tap near the top-right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything started working again.
The manager was greatly relieved 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 request of payment for services for the amount of $5,000.
The factory manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for spending years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make complex things look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up to get specific results
- Which settings you need to configure in order to make sure processes will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your site, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites or online solutions.
Third-Party Solutions
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all of your content gets posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your system, content linked back to your website is automatically syndicated to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social media accounts, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and business will be exposed to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of the sites and online solutions will need to be set up before configuring your 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 Search Console
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, your information can be used with web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, traffic monitoring code can be added to all web pages in WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and instantly sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site data have been set up, you can use this information with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, 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 grow a professional web presence.
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 automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up 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 pages and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
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 social feed.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can add to your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and 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 site.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in this 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 ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
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 and WordPress will do the rest …
(You can 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
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog 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 checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping your update services list whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although this section is 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugins For SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in 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 drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social sharing plugins let you specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Aspects For Your WordPress Site
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to make sure that your site is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have written a detailed article on why it’s important to have a compliant website here:
WordPress Tags & Post Categories
Tags and post categories help search engines index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your pages, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
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.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide readers with a visual map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search engine bots can understand. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL or click on links pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they are greeted with an error page (known as a 404 error page) …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add fresh content on a consistent basis to automatically attract new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web professionals months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is addressed in the next article in the WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading about this topic, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress website and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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