Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is publish web content on a consistent basis to attract new traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically get web traffic as you begin adding fresh content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale and are exploring any and every opportunity they can to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over the competition. With an expertly configured website, you have a significant competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to explain the main difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was going fine in the widget manufacturing plant when the equipment suddenly ground to a halt.
No one could figure out what happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived within in less than an hour and, without uttering a word, headed out directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for less than 2 minutes, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool belt and made a single tap near the right corner of the box.
Immediately, the machinery came back to life.
The floor manager was grateful and relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them so much for less than 5 minutes work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website fully set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online 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 the solution to many challenges may seem ridiculously simple in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for the client. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options need to be configured to make sure everything functions to plan, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts such as your server, your web site, and various third-party sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your hosting account 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 website will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
External Web Properties & Solutions – Configuration
The concept behind adding external sites is that all of your content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external platforms to your configuration, content linked back to your site gets automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your business will then be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of the sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help 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 before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, tools, and reports about their website.
Once your account has been with Google are set up, use this information to automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add your account code to WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and feed data instantly to various other online applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account has been set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors 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.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work well with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be added to your own web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, this section includes only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 in this section can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact 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 a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to ping the update services list when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
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 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)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling 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, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your websites.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a 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, classify and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Most social plugins allow you to choose which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also provide built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings and options for improved traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons and enabling the function …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Configuring Other WordPress Areas
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad 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 make money online, it’s important that your site is compliant with all laws and regulations.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog, refer to this article:
WordPress Tags & Post Categories
Tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your web pages.
(WordPress categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide users with a visual map of how your content is structured, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search bots can read. Although Google will index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When online users enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
A 404 page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do to start generating new traffic is add web content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next section of the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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