Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is post content regularly to drive web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain why an expertly configured site is different from a professionally configured website, and how much work needs to be done to ensure that when everything is fully configured, you can automatically start getting visitors whenever you add web content to your site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business getting ever more competitive worldwide, it’s worth looking into every opportunity you can to get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you a significant competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to describe the key difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take extra labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything was humming along in the widget workshop when things came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what was wrong, the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrived shortly afterwards and headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the box for less than 3 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer from his shirt pocket and made a single tap near the left edge of the unit.
Immediately, every machine came back to life.
The plant 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 factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The factory manager called the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them so much for less than 5 minutes work. He promptly 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 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 to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to get paid fairly for investing years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although the solution to many challenges often seems quite easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for the client. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which services you need to set up and activate to get desired outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to make sure things will work as planned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many components such as your web server, your web site, and a number of third-party sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings in your hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your business can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like implementing server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites or online solutions.
External Accounts
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content is posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your traffic network, content linked back to your website will get automatically fed to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your website will then be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of important data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account with Google Webmaster Tools are set up, this information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, you can add traffic tracking code to WordPress using plugins and send data automatically to various other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, you can use the details to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which a number of 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 web traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and get new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts and profile pages with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can post your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act 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 that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are various sites and platforms you can add to your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section …
(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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view 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 your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to notify all the update services you have listed whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings 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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
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. Regardless of the 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 securing your website.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugins For SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it allows you to configure 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 share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Most 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 shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Themes
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 layout and design aspects of your site, many themes also include built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a few buttons to enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure For Better Traffic Flow
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Post Tags And Categories
Post tags and post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.
(WordPress post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
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 tools discover more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search engines can interpret. Although Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching for your site type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on links pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they will normally be presented with an error – page not found message …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do is post web content regularly to automatically begin attracting traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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