Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of 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 to automatically begin bringing new web traffic is publish great content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. 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 site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured one, and how much work is required to make sure that when all is fully configured, traffic will automatically start flowing when you start posting fresh content to your web site.
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 their greatest challenges online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are looking for every advantage available to improve their results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, you have a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Everything was going well in the widget-making plant when the machines suddenly stopped.
No one could figure out what has gone wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately went towards the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring diagrams for no more than 2 minutes, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny little hammer from his tool belt and made a very gentle tap about three inches from the left corner of the box.
Immediately, all the machinery sprang back to life.
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 factory manager received an invoice for $5,000.
The factory manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them so much for less than five minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to get paid fairly for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WP site fully set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(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 things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring a few basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure everything functions as expected, etc.
(Generating 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 difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. It’s not just about installing a solution, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of a number of different parts such as your server, your web site, and various third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a brief look at these steps.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites.
External Web Properties & Solutions – Configuration
The concept behind choosing external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, be distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external services to your traffic system, content linked back to your website gets automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your content and website will be given exposure to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of these sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, this information can be used with 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 site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via a Google Analytics plugin and send data instantly to various other useful applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account, you can use your information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, 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 this into your automated traffic generation system in Part Four of this 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 to set up your social accounts 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are many different platforms you can add to your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of 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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read the rest of the content from summaries, 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 check box is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly notify your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress 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 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)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, refer to this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at 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 WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is safe from a cyber attack.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default 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 sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also provide options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Steps For WordPress Traffic Automation
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, 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 start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, see this article:
WordPress Tags And Categories
Post tags and post categories help search engines classify and index your website, which improves traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
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 tools find your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Only search engine bots can read XML sitemaps. Although Google can index your site just using 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.
Your 404 Page
When online users enter the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect 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 dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website or blog fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is publish web content consistently to start driving traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this process typically takes some website professionals months to acquire.
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 addressed in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website and proven online marketing strategies.
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