Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish content consistently to automatically begin bringing web traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the blueprint. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. The focus of this section is to help you understand what makes an expertly configured site different than a professionally configured website, and what type of work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically start getting new traffic whenever you publish new content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are looking for any and every advantage they can that can help you get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were running smoothly in the widget factory when suddenly, everything ceased working.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately went towards the control box. After staring at the electronic components for what seemed like 2 minutes, the expert then took out a little hammer and made a gentle tap near the bottom-left corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything started working as before.
The manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialled the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for spending years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your web site fully 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 instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While 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 requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to get certain outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure everything will function as envisioned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web server, your WP site, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your webhosting account that affect how your website 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 web traffic your business may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and online services.
External Services
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all content is posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets syndicated automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external services have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically posted to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your site will benefit from exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to speed up the 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 before configuring your settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google Webmaster Tools, this information can be used to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, you can add tracking code to all of your pages in WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and send data automatically to various other applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account and entering site data, your information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which various 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 traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up in order to 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 traffic to your site.
Make sure you have profiles set up with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail further below and during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content 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 access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 RebelMouse website.
There are various platforms that can be incorporated into your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration plan 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 site.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
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 …
(You can 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 on this page can influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying 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 decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view 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 main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to notify the update services list when a new post gets 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although discussion settings 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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Screen)
Here are some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
WP Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of 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, website security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and bots.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins let you select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Themes
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 the design and layout of your website, many themes also give you built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
Configuring Other WordPress Features
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do any type of business online, you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
To learn more about how to quickly add legal pages to your website or blog, see this article:
Post Categories And Tags
Post tags & categories help search engines index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help search engines index your website, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications discover your website 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 not the same things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. 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 results in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When visitors enter the wrong web address into their web browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 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 admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website or blog expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then is post web content on a consistent basis to start generating new web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform this process can take some website professionals a long time to learn.
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 explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To keep reading about this topic, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business online using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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