Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add new content on a consistent basis to begin attracting new traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on 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 site, and what to do if your existing site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. We will show you what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different, and what kind of work is required to ensure that when all is set up and configured, you can automatically start getting traffic as you begin adding new content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and are researching any advantage they believe will improve their results and performance online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off with a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
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 set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to understand the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is additional work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going just fine in the widget-making plant when things come to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert goes immediately to the control box. After staring at the board for 3 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny little hammer from his utility belt and makes a gentle tap about one inch from the left side of the control unit.
Immediately, everything springs back to life.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services rendered for the amount of $5,000.
Outraged and furious, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your site set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating 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 many experts often make complex situations and problems look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up to get certain outcomes
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that things function as envisioned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a plugin, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many components including your web server, your site, and a number of third-party sites and services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your webhosting account that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your business may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of external sites.
External Sites
The concept behind adding external sites is that all of your content should be posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site gets automatically fed to these platforms. Your site will then be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to help speed up the process 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 Search Console)
Google Search Console 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, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site data, this information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account and site details, you can add tracking code to WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data instantly to various other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site details are set up, use this information with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional web 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 with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic generation system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can configure these as part of 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 get new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your site …
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 RebelMouse account.
There are various sites and platforms you can add to your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring WordPress
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
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
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As described in this section,
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 ping the update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing 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 site further, and whether or not they will visit your site 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.
The main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the 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 unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
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 sites 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your websites is something you cannot ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easier for search engines like Google to index …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social share plugins let you specify which 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 followers), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring Settings – Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings and options for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure For Increased Traffic
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help understanding the importance of having a legally compliant website, go here:
WordPress Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories that have been set up.
Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover more of your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is mostly filled with code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Error Page
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong URL into their browser or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website or blog has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then is publish content on a regular basis to start driving traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes some website developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section Three
To keep reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online using a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing methods.
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