Welcome to Part Three of our 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 article 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, all you have to do is add content consistently to automatically begin bringing more web traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of this 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 article, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to drive new visitors automatically as you begin posting new content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition becoming increasingly more difficult businesses are researching every advantage they believe will help them improve their results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over other competitors. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Process 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 a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was going well in the gizmo assembly line when things suddenly stopped.
As no one could figure out what was wrong, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for less than 2 minutes, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer and made a single tap near the left-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything sprang to life once more.
The manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of $5,000.
The manager called the expert, demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for so little time delivering such minimal amount of work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one in the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for having spent years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress blog set up so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks 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 site?)
Although many experts often make complicated solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which settings you need to configure in order to make sure processes will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing a piece of software, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your web site, and a number of third-party sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites.
External Web Properties And Services – Configuration
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content should be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external platforms to your configuration, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically posted to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some external sites and services 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, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your WordPress settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of useful information, tools, and reports about their website.
Once your Google Webmaster Tools account and site details have been set up, the information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via plugins and send data automatically to various other useful applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account with Bing, you can use your information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can configure these as part of 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 social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are various sites and platforms you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, 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 here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically notify various update services whenever new posts are 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 …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – WP Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
Blog Defender WordPress 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 safe from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their friends and networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which users can unlock by liking your page.
WP Traffic Generation Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Additional Configuration Steps
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website, go here:
WordPress Tags & Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your pages.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide readers with a logical map of how your content is organized, while XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search bots can interpret. Although Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your site that no longer exist, they are greeted with an error page (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do to automatically attract new traffic is add web content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website developers months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is addressed in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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