Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to start generating new traffic is post new content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of the blueprint. We helped you understand 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 was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We explain how to configure a WordPress site so you can automatically drive web traffic simply by consistently posting content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are looking for any and every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over other competitors. For businesses, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps required 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 anecdote.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was going well in the widget-making assembly line when everything came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and, without uttering a word, headed out directly to the main control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for 5 minutes or less, the expert then took out a little hammer from his shirt pocket and made a gentle tap near the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The floor manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager received an invoice for $5,000.
The manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were charged so much for so little time delivering such a minimal amount of work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to get paid fairly for spending years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating web 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 website?)
While the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to figure things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring a few internal settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get certain results
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that everything will work as planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage is a process that involves your web server, your site, and various third-party sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your hosting account that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to configure various external sites and services.
External Sites
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content should be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external services to your setup, content pointing back to your website will be automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and business will benefit from increased exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the third-party sites and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of important data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account, use your information with traffic settings 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, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, you can add your account code to WordPress using plugins and send data automatically to various other online applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account has been set up, you can use this information with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your traffic generation system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your 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 sites and get new visitors to your site.
You should set up accounts and profiles with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can post your content to lots of social sites. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different platforms you can incorporate into your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
The WordPress admin area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described below the Update Services section title,
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 notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – 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
***
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, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or 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 most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to ping various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – 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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings enable your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
WordPress 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. No matter what kind 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 web security.
(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.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google find, crawl and index your web pages …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s ability to rank better in search engines)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site using WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, many themes also give you options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System – Additional Configuration
Last (but by no means least) in the traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up 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 for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories & Post Tags
Categories & post tags help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your website 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.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
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 can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Another Source Of Web Traffic!
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong URL into their browser or click on a dead hyperlink, they will typically be presented with an error page (known as a 404 page) …
(A 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is post fresh content consistently to automatically begin attracting web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing strategies.
Get Notified When New Tutorials Are Published – Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
***