Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to start generating traffic is add new content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of the automation process. We explained the best way to get started 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 has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We will show you what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different, and just what kind of work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically begin to get web traffic simply by publishing fresh content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are researching any advantage available to improve their results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge competitive advantage. With an expertly configured WordPress site, you have a flying start and an immediate advantage online.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to understand the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this point here’s a story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going fine in the gizmo factory when things grind to a sudden halt.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately goes to the control box. After staring silently at the wiring diagrams for what seems like 3 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer from his pocket and makes a gentle tap near the left corner of the box.
Immediately, every machine in the workshop comes back to life.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Angry and bordering on a sense of outrage, the factory manager rings the expert. Why did he charge them so much for less than 5 minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for investing years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP blog set up and configured 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 immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
While experts often make difficult situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve specific results
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure everything functions the way you want, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking on a button or two, or configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many components including your server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, 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 what’s involved.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your hosting account that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing 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 hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
External Web Properties & Services – Configuration
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, radiate outwards to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your network, content pointing back to your site will be automatically added to these platforms. Your content and site will then receive exposure online, helping you tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help save time 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account and site details with Google are set up, you can use your information to integrate and automate traffic-related 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, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and entered your site details, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your pages in WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data instantly to other useful applications and web properties.
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, your information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers both a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up in order to 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your own web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site For Traffic
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.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below 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 ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 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, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to view the rest of the content from summaries, 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 check box is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping various update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(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 blogs 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to bots and hackers.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with members of their social communities can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social plugins allow you to 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 set up protected content sections on your site which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WP Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, some themes also provide options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Additional Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories & Tags
Post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and categories during the Website Planning Stages.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Error Page
When visitors searching for your site type in the wrong web address into their web browser or click on links pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they will typically be presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up on your web server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then to begin bringing web traffic is add content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web developers a long time to acquire.
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 explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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