Welcome to Part Five of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to grow your business online automatically using the WordPress CMS.
So far, we have covered the following in this series:
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the traffic automation process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is add new content consistently to generate web traffic!)
In Part 2, we look at the setup phase. We explain the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In Part 3, we discuss important configuration decisions. We explained how to configure web hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …
(In Part Three we show you how to configure all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)
In Part 4, we showed you how to set up various plugins that can bring visitors automatically to your website or blog when you begin publishing web content.
(Publish content one-time, automate the rest!)
In Part Five of the WordPress web traffic automation blueprint series, we look at ways to optimize traffic generation with a number of different tools and strategies.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Traffic Optimization Systems
In addition to getting your WordPress website expertly configured, the key to generating quality traffic on a consistent basis is having a clear business vision, careful digital planning, and great systems in place.
(Automating traffic is the product of having a clear business vision, planning, and systems)
Let’s review briefly the systems that will help you grow and manage this traffic.
These systems include:
- Marketing Systems – How you drive new traffic to your website.
- Technical Systems – The systems used to keep your online presence up and running for receiving new traffic.
- Business Systems – How you manage and respond to new traffic.
(Systems help you grow and manage your web traffic)
Let’s briefly review how important these systems are for traffic:
Marketing Systems
Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to create new traffic for your website. You can test your online marketing systems by asking questions such as:
- What channels will you use to generate traffic (e.g. blogging, facebook advertising, video marketing, etc)?
- How will you allocate your marketing budget and resources to these channels?
- Who will create your content, sales funnels, and run your marketing campaigns?
- How will you measure the cost-effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns?
During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising to help you generate some initial intelligence. If you’re tracking your marketing campaigns correctly, this should yield some actionable data, such as the keyword phrases people are searching online to find your website, which you can use to create content targeted specifically to your audience.
Technical Systems
Your technical systems and processes ensure that your web presence remains operating efficiently for receiving traffic. There’s no point sending traffic to your site if your site is constantly experiencing problems or your pages take a long time to load.
Your systems include handling areas like webhosting, site maintenance and support, installing and updating new software (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.
Your technical systems can be tested by asking questions such as:
- Who looks after my server?
- Who will look after my website and keep my site maintained and up-to-date?
- Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should things go wrong?
Many potential problems can be minimized if your website planning process and setup and configuration phases have been done correctly. Like all technology, however, you should expect problems. Your technical systems need to be robust enough to handle these.
Business Systems
You need good operational systems and processes in place to help you manage the influx of new traffic. These include:
- Communication systems
- Managing human and financial resources
- Handling leads and sales inquiries
- Order fulfillment
- Customer training/service
- etc.
If you intend to outsource your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then make sure you also implement excellent systems for managing all outsourcing processes.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Optimizing Traffic Generation
With clear business objectives and great systems in place, all you need to focus on is implementing and optimizing your “traffic loop”.
Let’s walk through an example of how to implement, optimize, and further automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the diagram below …
(WordPress can help implement and optimize a traffic loop)
Increase Reach And Visibility Online
Step 1 of the process is to increase visibility for your business.
Tips
- An expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically syndicate your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content online.
- As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Facebook ads) can help you generate actionable and intelligent data such as the keyword phrases people are searching online to find your website, which you can use to create web content targeted specifically to your audience’s needs.
- Repurpose your content to leverage different media formats.
- Continue learning about ways to increase more web traffic using methods like Facebook advertising, social media, Reddit, etc.
Tools And Methods
We’ve covered many useful tools, plugins, and strategies in previous sections of this article series.
Also, ask us about WordPress plugins that let you easily add the following to your site:
- Share your comments and posts online,
- Run contests, offer discounts or downloads for likes/shares,
- Add user generated content, feeds, etc.
- Publish and distribute content online in different media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, infographics, etc.)
Build Authority And Credibility
Getting more content published is a great first step, but for this activity to be really effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with your audience.
Publishing higher quality content improves your chances of getting more people to link to it and share it with others and hence more traffic.
Tips
- Create and publish content that will add value to potential visitors and showcase your expertise. This includes content that informs and educates readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
- Consider publishing an instructional e-book that you can sell or distribute online.
Tools And Methods
We have created a detailed email course on content creation that you can plug into at no cost here:
Also, look for plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your website or blog:
- Legal Pages
- Testimonials
- Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
- Ratings
- User Reviews
- Badges/Certificates Of Trust
Grow Influence And Engagement
At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on tap.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting an online community or even your own social network.
With “Traffic On Tap,” your traffic comes from customers or subscribers – people who already like you and trust you. Your influence and credibility can be used to generate traffic with a single post or email.
Useful Tips
- Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
- Add an email newsletter and encourage people to subscribe.
- Add a paid or free membership site.
- Start or join an online group on Facebook.
Plugins, Tools, And Methods
Many solutions and WordPress plugins are available that can help increase your online influence and improve engagement. For example:
- List-Building Tools (e.g. Aweber, GetResponse, etc.)
- Contact Forms, Live Chat
- Forums and Discussion Groups (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
- Polls and Surveys
- Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
- Comment sharing
- Add media, image galleries, etc.
Identify Needs/Problems And Provide Solutions
By taking advantage of incoming traffic to discover what problems your visitors are trying to solve, you should have no problem developing new services and products, all of which can provide you with new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.
Useful Tips
- Create a free or paid online training program.
- Consider publishing an educational guide that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on Clickbank.
- Add an e-commerce store to your business.
Tools, Plugins, & Methods
If you plan to provide services, products, and solutions online (as opposed to just providing information), look for WordPress plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your site:
- Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
- Learning Management Systems (e.g. Courseware)
- Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)
Analyze Data & Feedback
The final step of the process is to collect and analyze data. Learning to gather and interpret data from existing traffic lets you discover new traffic opportunities.
Hopefully, by now you already have installed an analytics tool (e.g. Google Analytics) on your website. Make sure you also learn how to interpret the data.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Summary
Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is repeat the process over and over again, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and get better your results.
In summary:
- Begin with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by good marketing, technical and business systems,
- Implement a content marketing strategy (consider also investing in some paid advertising to drive initial traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
- Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions as required to help build authority, trust, and credibility, and also to increase engagement with visitors,
- Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
- Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.
Hopefully, now you have a blueprint that will help you automate and optimize the process of driving visitors to your website and build a better business online.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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