Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your website using WordPress.
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 generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add web content on a consistent basis to generate traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 existing site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to attract new traffic automatically whenever you publish web content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With competition becoming increasingly more difficult businesses are researching any advantage they can that can help you get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Phase Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take additional labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is going just fine in the gizmo factory when things come to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, immediately heads towards the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for what seems like 3 minutes, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny hammer from his utility belt and makes a very gentle tap near the left-hand edge of the box.
Immediately, the machinery returns to normal.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
With great anger, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP web site set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other 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 attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems quite simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for a client. It also 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 accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will run exactly as you have planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many components such as your web hosting server, your website, and a number of external sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a brief look at these steps.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your business may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, 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 email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites.
Configuring External Sites
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content will be posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your network, content linked back to your website gets automatically fed to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content receives exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some external sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with useful data, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, you can add visitor tracking information to WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin and send data instantly to many other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing, your details can be used to automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with 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 business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social accounts before you can 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 sites and bring new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are many social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different platforms you can add to your own traffic system. 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 server settings and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in the Update Services 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 – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services box
By default, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to ping various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
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 blogs 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here: Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is guaranteed immunity from cyber attacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to 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 site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring Settings – WordPress Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also give you options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Additional Configuration Aspects For WordPress
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include 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 good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do any kind of business online, you need to ensure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Tags & Categories
WordPress tags & post categories help search engines better classify and index your website, which helps to increase traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s tags and categories during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is mostly filled with code that only search engine bots can read. Although search engines like Google will index your pages 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 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on a dead hyperlink, they are greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 Not Found page) …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically start attracting web traffic is add new content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is covered in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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