Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to begin attracting traffic is add content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration stage of this process. We will help you understand what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured site. You will also understand how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you will begin driving visitors automatically simply by regularly adding new content on your web site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and are researching any and every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous competitive advantage. Having an expertly configured website gives you a flying start from the moment your website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s a simple way to understand the main difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take extra labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things were running smoothly in the gizmo plant when everything suddenly came to a halt.
No one could figure out what happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately headed to the control box. After staring silently at the circuit board for 3 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a very gentle tap near the bottom-left side of the control unit.
Immediately, everything started working once more.
The plant manager was overjoyed 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 request of payment for services totalling $5,000.
The factory manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be automatically 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?)
Although the solution to many challenges is often ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves 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 third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which settings need to be configured to make sure everything will work as expected, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as simple as installing a solution, clicking on a button or two, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your website or blog, and various external sites and online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your business will attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up 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, the next step is to set up and configure a number of external sites and services.
3rd-Party Accounts Configuration
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic system, content linking back to your website will be automatically posted to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social sites, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and business will be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party 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, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with essential data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Webmaster Tools account, the account information can be used with web traffic-related 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 site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, visitor tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account is with Bing have been set up, you can use the account information with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up in order to 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 and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
You should set up accounts and profiles with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section contains 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 …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website 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 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 search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically ping all the update services you have listed when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs 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
Permalinks enable WordPress to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Screen)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
For a detailed tutorial on setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
WordPress Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site 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, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WordPress Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also lets you specify how to present your content in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins allow you to select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, many themes also include options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Additional Features Of WordPress To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with all regulations.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article on how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog here:
Post Categories & Post Tags
Post tags and post categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your website, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Only search engine bots can understand XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using 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 can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – An Additional Source Of Traffic!
When visitors type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on links pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 page can be turned into a useful source of traffic to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then to begin attracting new traffic is publish content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and knowledge required to perform this process typically takes some web developers months to learn.
Once you have 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 our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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