Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to generate more web traffic is add great content consistently!)
In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained 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 website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing just by publishing web content on a consistent basis to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business becoming so much more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth looking into every opportunity you can to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. Having an expertly configured website gives your business a significant competitive advantage from the very beginning.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
A Semi-True Story …
Things were going according to schedule in the gizmo assembly workshop when suddenly, everything ground to a stop.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walked immediately to the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for about 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a little hammer and made a single tap near the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything sprang to life.
The floor manager was greatly overjoyed 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 services rendered for the sum of $5,000.
The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such a large amount of money for less than five minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the factory stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website or blog set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other web properties would be instantly 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 site?)
While many experts often make difficult situations and problems look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to achieve specific results
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure things function as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, clicking a button, or configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your server, your web site, and various external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simplified flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like configuring spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and online services.
Configuring External Services
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all of your content gets posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external sites into your traffic system, content linking back to your website is automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social media accounts, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your business receives exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to 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 WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of useful information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site data with Google are set up, use this information with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your account, visitor tracking data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, your information can be used with web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. 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 some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media 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 attract new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all the big 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 pick those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse website.
There are various platforms you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings
By default, your WordPress administration area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, this section contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically notify various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your permalink URLs …
(Configuring permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial on setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to increase traffic
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google and Bing find, classify and index your website …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social plugins let you choose 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 plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting 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, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your settings and enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic – Additional Configuration Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with government legal requirements.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article on why it’s important to have a legally compliant website here:
Post Categories & Tags
Post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your website.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A 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 website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they will typically be presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured into a useful source of traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to automatically begin bringing new traffic is post content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is explained in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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