Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is add new content consistently to generate traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of this process. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will show you what makes an expertly configured site different, and how much work is required to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically attract visitors when you start to post content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
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 business becoming so much more competitive worldwide, it’s worth learning about any advantage available to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Configuration Stage Is What Makes The Difference
There is a significant 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 can offer.
Here’s one way to explain the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
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 type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was going well in the gizmo-making manufacturing plant when things suddenly came to a stop.
No one could figure out what was wrong and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert walked immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring board for 2 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny little hammer and made a single tap near the right-hand edge of the control unit.
Immediately, everything began to work as before.
The floor manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why the expert had charged them such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up to get certain results
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that everything functions exactly as you have envisioned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring a solution, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of various different parts including your web server, your web site, and various third-party sites or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your hosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of external sites and services.
External Sites
The concept behind choosing external sites is that all of your content gets posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it syndicates automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external sites into your traffic system, content linked back to your site gets automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website will be given additional exposure to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some third-party web properties and online solutions will need to be set up before configuring your settings to help 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:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with important information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
Once your Google Webmasters account has been set up, this information can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, visitor tracking data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, the account details can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. 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 generation system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already 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 and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog 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 visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are many different sites and platforms you can add to your traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
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 specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
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 and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(You can 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 in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users 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 or blog to get 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 traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to notify 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 unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your content, 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
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website 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 securing your websites.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more details:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easy for search engines like Google and Bing to find, crawl and index …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with members of their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to select which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors 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 you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do any type of business online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
Post Categories & Tags
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and post categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories you have set up.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although Google will index your pages 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.
404 Page Not Found – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!
When online users type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on links pointing to destinations on your site that no longer exist, they will typically be presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do is add new content on a consistent basis to drive more traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals months to acquire.
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 the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading, click here:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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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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