Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add content on a consistent basis to automatically bring web traffic!)
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 web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic system. We explain how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that new web traffic will automatically start flowing just by consistently publishing web content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive worldwide and are exploring any and every opportunity they can to improve their results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured website, your business has an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
Configuration Is The Difference
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 its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing little story.
A Semi-True Story …
All was humming along in the gizmo assembly factory when everything came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived within in less than an hour and, without saying a word, headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for 5 minutes or less, the expert then produced a little hammer and made a very gentle tap near the right-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything inside the factory floor returned once again to normal.
The floor manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one on the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for having spent years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While many experts often make complex solutions look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring settings for the client. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up to get specific results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to make sure things will work as expected, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts including your web hosting server, your site, and a number of external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to configure a number of external sites and services.
External Sites
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content gets published to a central location (your site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your setup, content linked back to your website gets automatically published on your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and business will be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google, use this information to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, visitor tracking information can be easily integrated with WordPress using a plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account, use this information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to grow a professional online 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 explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and get new traffic to your site)
You will need your 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 and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have profiles set up with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are many social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of 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 that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different solutions you can add to your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified 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 Settings
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 web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content 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.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress 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 articles, 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
The examples below show some of the ways your post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines find and index your web pages …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. Once 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 in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social share plugins let you select which social 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 likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors 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 grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a few buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website, go here:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags and post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are code that only search engine bots can read. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Page Not Found
When online users type in the wrong web address into their web browser or click on links pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 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 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then is post web content regularly to automatically begin bringing new web traffic.
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 elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web developers 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 addressed in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To keep reading this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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