In Part One of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series overview, we explained that the key to turning your website into an automated web traffic generation machine is to use an “expertly configured” WordPress website.
As we also explained, an expertly configured WordPress web site is different than a professionally-configured WordPress website or blog. An ”expertly configured” WordPress web site is a web site that is not only powered by WordPress, but has also been expertly set up and configured (either by yourself or professionally) to take advantage of the enormous power, ease-of-use and functionality of WordPress and its integration with various sites, specifically in areas like SEO, 3rd-party site notification and analytics.
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to bring traffic is publish great content on a regular basis!)
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is add great content regularly to automatically generate web traffic organically.
As outlined in Part 1 of this article series, the components of this automated website traffic machine are as follows:
- Setup
- Configure
- Automate
- Optimize
In this article, we look at the “Setup” phase of this process. The focus of this section is to help you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, or if you already have an existing site that may or may not have been built using WordPress.
WordPress Traffic System – Setup
If You Have No Website Yet
If you don’t have a website yet, it’s quite simple … get a WordPress site!
WordPress is the most powerful, flexible, cost-effective and the easiest to use content management system available. We provide loads of articles, tips, and tutorials about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to grow your business online.
For example, to see just how popular WordPress is as a platform for building a web presence, see this article: WordPress Usage Statistics
After making the choice to build your website with WordPress, the next step is to choose which type of WordPress platform you will use to run your web presence on.
This step is important as there are two types of WordPress platforms available …
WordPress.org Or WordPress.com?
(WordPress.org Or WordPress.com?)
WordPress offers website owners a ”hosted” and a “self-hosted” option.
With the “self-hosted” option you can download the full-featured WordPress software at no cost from WordPress.org and host a WordPress site or blog using your own domain name.
With the “hosted option”, WordPress hosts your site for free at WordPress.com. There are, however, a number of limitations to what you can and can’t do with your blog when it is hosted for free at WordPress.com.
If you are planning to build a professional web presence and you want to set up the traffic system described here, then you should choose the “self-hosted” WordPress version. The benefits of choosing the “self-hosted” option (WordPress.org) far outweigh those of hosting a free blog at WordPress.com. You have complete control over your web presence and avoid the limitations of the hosted option. Keep in mind that You can overcome the limitations of the free hosting platform by upgrading to a paid option, but then why not just start off by hosting a WordPress site on your domain and avoid the hassles of upgrading later?
If You Already Have An Existing Website
If you already own an existing site, first check to see if it has been built using WordPress.
If you need help with this step, check this article: How To Tell If A Site Is A WP Web Site
If your web site is a WordPress web site, move to the next step, and make sure that your site’s internal settings have been properly configured. We cover this step in more detail in another tutorial.
If your website was not built with WordPress, then you will need to make some choices.
Take a look at the simple flowchart below. It will help you choose where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain …
(Use the above flowchart to help you choose how to set up WordPress on your domain)
Basically, you have two choices:
- Replace your existing site so that your main website is powered by WordPress, or
- Keep your existing site and add a WordPress-driven blog. Your WordPress blog will then be expertly configured and used to drive traffic to your main web site.
If you choose to keep your existing web site and add a WordPress-powered blog, make sure to use the self-hosted version of WordPress, which requires a domain name and webhosting, but allows you to fully configure your blog’s settings and customize the design of your existing web site using a suitable theme.
To use WordPress as your main website, install it in the “root” directory of your domain (i.e. www.mydomainname.com).
If you already have an existing website, then you will want to install WordPress in a subdirectory of your domain, e.g. www.mydomainname.com/blog (you can name your subdirectory whatever you want).
If you already have a site that you don’t want to delete or replace with a WordPress site, the other option you have is to set up your WordPress site or blog on an entirely different domain.
This way:
- mydomainname.com – goes to your existing website
- myotherdomain.com – goes to your WordPress blog
Once you have set up your WordPress site, the next step is to configure its internal settings. This step is explained in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section 2
To keep reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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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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