Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is publish fresh content consistently to start attracting web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn why an expertly configured WordPress site is different from a professionally configured site, and how much work is required to make sure that when everything is fully configured, web traffic will automatically start flowing as you begin publishing fresh content regularly to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are exploring any and every advantage they can that can help you get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has a significant competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is humming along in the gizmo-making workshop when suddenly, things grinds to a halt.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives soon afterwards and immediately walks towards the control box. After staring at the control unit for 5 minutes or less, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer and makes a very gentle tap near the left corner of the unit.
Immediately, every machine starts working again.
The plant manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a request of payment for services for the sum of $5,000.
Unable to contain his anger and sense of outrage, the manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Why had they had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to be compensated fairly for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your web site fully set up and configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
While experts often make complicated situations and problems look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than simply installing a website and configuring settings for the client. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up and activated to get certain outcomes
- Which options need to be configured to make sure everything functions as planned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your server 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 traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like implementing server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites.
External Sites And Solutions – Configuration
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content will get published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external services into your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will then be given added exposure to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to 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 Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google Webmaster Tools, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, your account data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account has been set up, this information can be used to automate web traffic 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 users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various 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 Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media accounts 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 visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier traffic generation sources. 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 your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
As stated below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically 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 field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(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 in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically ping your list of update services when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
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 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Changing WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to increase traffic
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of 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, securing your websites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and botnets.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins let you specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
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, some themes also provide options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Additional Configuration
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic, 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 as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do business online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with all laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Post Tags And Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
HTML Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they are presented with an error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured into a useful source of traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website or blog expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is post great content on a consistent basis to automatically attract new web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many website developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing methods.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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