Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add content consistently to automatically begin bringing web traffic!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase of the blueprint. 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will explain why an expertly configured WordPress site is different than a professionally configured site, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is set up and configured, you can automatically drive new traffic when you post web content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are exploring every opportunity they can to improve their performance and results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you a significant advantage from the word “go”.
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 an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is more work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s a little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was going just fine in the widget-making factory when everything came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what has gone wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed out immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring diagrams for less than 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny little hammer from his tool box and made a very gentle tap near the right corner of the box.
Immediately, the machinery started working as before.
The manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the equipment 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 investing years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog fully set up and configured so all you had to do is publish content to it 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 time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which services you need to set up to achieve certain results
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything will work as envisioned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a solution, configuring some options and settings in your admin area or clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of a number of different components including your web hosting server, your WordPress site, and a number of third-party sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we were to create a simplified diagram showing the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Your 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 tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to configure a number of third-party sites and services.
External Accounts
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all of your content gets published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it radiates outwards automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your network, content linked back to your site will be automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your business will then be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help 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 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 important data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site data with Google Webmasters have been set up, you can use the account information with web traffic-related settings 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 engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, visitor tracking data can be easily integrated with WordPress using a simple plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site details are set up, this information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. 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 version if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your web traffic system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up in order to 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 social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your social feed.
There are many different sites and platforms you can add to your own web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress 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 key areas.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post to this section …
(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
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to get the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly ping the list of update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Traffic Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to bring more visitors to your site
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
Go here for more details:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines like Google to index …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins.
Many social sharing plugins let you select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also give you built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure For Improved Traffic Results
Last (but by no means least) in the traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth 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 as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online, you need to ensure that your site is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Compliant?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website, see this article:
Tags And Post Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
HTML Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover more of your web 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 not the same thing. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is code that only search bots can understand. Although Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin 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 Page – An Additional Source Of Web Traffic!
When visitors searching for your site enter the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is post content consistently to automatically bring traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this process can take some web professionals a long time 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 series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online with a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing strategies.
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