Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic generation machine using WordPress.
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 website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to bring traffic is post content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. We explain why an expertly configured site is different, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when everything is set up and configured, you can automatically drive new traffic when you add new content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With competition making business survival progressively tougher businesses are looking for any and every advantage they can that can help you increase their competitiveness online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. An expertly configured WordPress site gives your business a flying start as soon as your website is launched.
Configuration 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 a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take additional labor 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 story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going fine in the gizmo-making workshop when things suddenly cease working.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately heads to the main control box. After staring at the wiring board for no more than 2 minutes, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy hammer from his pocket and makes a very gentle tap about two inches from the left side of the control unit.
Immediately, the assembly line returns to normal.
The plant manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Feeling angry, the factory manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having spent years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your blog set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be immediately 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 site?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems quite simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that things function to plan, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a solution, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many parts such as your web hosting server, your WP site, and a number of external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your web hosting account that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step is to set up and configure various external sites.
External Sites
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all of your content will be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After adding these external services to your configuration, content pointing back to your website will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will benefit from exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to help 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:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your account is with Google have been set up, you can use your details with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, 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, your account data can be easily integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account is set up, your account information can be used to integrate and automate 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 2, WordPress offers website owners a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional web presence.
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 this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various 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 drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and pages set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in more detail further below and during the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to many social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, 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 blog feed …
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 social feed.
There are many different sites and platforms you can incorporate into your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify your update services list when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, 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)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
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 site is immune from cyberattacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with WordPress plugins)
You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress – Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for better traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Areas To Consider
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong 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 is found to comply with all legal requirements.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, see this article:
WordPress Tags & Categories
Tags & categories help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.
(Post categories help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be set up during the Website Planning Process.
When configuring your website to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications find your online content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – A Source Of Lost Traffic Opportunities!
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on links pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is publish content on a consistent basis to begin attracting web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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