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 platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to attract traffic is post fresh content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. 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 website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing when you begin publishing fresh content on a consistent basis on your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting ever more competitive worldwide, it’s worth looking into every advantage available to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For businesses, an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very start.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a 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 take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here is a story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is humming along in the gizmo-making workshop when suddenly, things stop.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert heads straight towards the main control box. After staring at the circuit board for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer from his tool belt and makes a gentle tap near the top-left side of the unit.
Immediately, everything comes back to life.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
With a sense of outrage, the manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WP website or blog set up so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While experts often make complicated situations and problems look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up to get desired results
- Which settings you need to configure to ensure that everything will work as expected, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts including your web hosting server, your site, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a brief look at what’s involved.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your web server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these, the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and/or online services.
Configuring External Web Properties
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all of your content will get published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external sites to your setup, content linked back to your site will be automatically syndicated to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social sites, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content and site will then receive added exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your WordPress site:
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 useful data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Search Console account and entering site data, the account information can be used to automate traffic-related settings 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 performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, you can add visitor tracking information to all of your pages in WordPress using a plugin and feed data automatically to other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, use your information with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have pages set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are various platforms you can incorporate into your own web traffic system. Please 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 third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
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 of the important areas.
Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As stated in this 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, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
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
***
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 influence web 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 website or blog to get 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 here as far as your traffic system is concerned 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 notify your list of update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global 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 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Section)
Here are some of the ways permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
If you need help setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WP Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can improve traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their friends and networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your site easily with WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared 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 set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features – Configuration
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 design and layout aspects of your website, many themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Steps For WordPress Sites
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding why it’s important to have a compliant website, go here:
WordPress Post Categories & Tags
Post tags & categories help search engines better organize and index your website, which improves traffic.
(Post categories help search engines better organize and index your pages, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be set up during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A visitor site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your 404 Page
When visitors searching for your site enter the wrong URL into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(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 several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is publish fresh content consistently to automatically bring more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process typically takes many web developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly 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 series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively using a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified Of New Tutorials!
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***