Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is post great content regularly to automatically generate more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand 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 site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to get web traffic automatically as you start to add new content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are looking for every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off to a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Configuration Phase 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 an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the key difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional 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 more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things were working according to schedule in the widget plant when all of a sudden, the machines stopped.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and, without saying a word, immediately went to the main control box. After staring at the electronic components for 5 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny little hammer and made a gentle tap about one and half cm from the right side of the control unit.
Immediately, everything began to work as before.
The floor manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a bill for $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialed the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for less than five minutes work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social followers from sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and dozens of other web properties would be instantly 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 the solution to many problems is often quite easy once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring some 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 3rd-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that things will work as expected, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a solution, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many parts including your web server, your web site, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your server that affect how your site will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic you may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Services
The purpose of adding external sites is that all content will get posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external services into your system, content pointing back to your site is automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to users of the platform itself. Your site will then receive exposure online, helping you tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to speed up the configuration 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google Search Console, you can use your information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, traffic monitoring information can be integrated with WordPress via a plugin and and fed to various other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account with Bing Webmaster Tools, your details can be used with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version 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 show you how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media and social bookmarking 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 get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are many different solutions you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen 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, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you 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 …
(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
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 content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 checkbox is ticked or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to ping all the update services you have listed when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WordPress permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No site 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 website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WP SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing to your site with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site using WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins allow you to select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WP Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your website, many themes also provide built-in features that let you improve SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Areas To Configure For Better Traffic Results
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 Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
We have written a detailed article about how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog here:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be set up during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web 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, whereas an XML sitemap contains code that only search bots can interpret. Although Google can index your pages 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 results in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Page Not Found
When online visitors enter the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they will typically be greeted with an error – page not found message …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then to automatically begin bringing new web traffic is post great content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many web professionals months to learn.
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 our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To keep reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-driven website and proven web marketing methods.
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