Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we described 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 generate traffic is publish content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to get started 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 has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured to automatically attract web traffic as you start posting web content to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive, it’s worth learning about any advantage available to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over the competition. With an expertly configured WordPress site, you have an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s a simple way to describe the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here’s an amusing story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things were going fine in the widget workshop when all of a sudden, production stopped.
No one could figure out what happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrived and immediately walked towards the control box. After staring at the wiring board for 5 minutes, the expert then produced a tiny hammer and made a single tap about one and half inches from the left-hand edge of the control unit.
Immediately, the machinery came back to life.
The plant manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The factory manager called 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, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a website or blog fully set up so all you had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
While the solution to many problems is often quite easy in hindsight, 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 some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts need to be set up and activated to achieve certain results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will run how you would like, etc.
(Driving 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 complicated. It’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your web server, your website, and various external sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we create a simplified diagram of the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas in more detail.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites and services.
Integration With External Sites
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all of your content should be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external services have been added to your setup, content pointing back to your website is automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your site will be given additional exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some third-party sites and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to 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 site:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, this information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, you can add your account information to all of your pages in WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and send data automatically to other online applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account, this information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
You should set up profiles with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are various platforms that can be added to your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Configuring WordPress Settings
The WordPress admin area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services section
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping all the update services you have specified in the Update Services section whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings 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 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Changing WordPress Permalinks
WordPress – Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is immune from cyber-attacks.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website 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 site more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins let you specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which users can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Additional Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do any kind of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Tags And Categories
WordPress tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your site’s 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. HTML site maps are web pages that link to all other content on your site and provide visitors with a an understandable map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps contain code that only search bots can interpret. Although Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When online users type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they will typically be presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web 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 allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is publish web content on a consistent basis to start driving traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many 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 covered in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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