Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is add new content on a regular basis to begin attracting web traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to automatically begin attracting new traffic when you begin to add content regularly to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and are researching every advantage they believe will increase their competitiveness online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous competitive advantage. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their 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 website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s a simple way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is going well in the gizmo plant when things grind to a sudden halt.
As no one can figure out what went wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately walks to the control box. After staring silently at the circuit board for less than 5 minutes, the expert then produces a little hammer and makes a very gentle tap near the left corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything inside the assembly line returns once more to normal.
The floor manager is grateful and relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services rendered for $5,000.
Feeling furious, the manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Why were they expected to pay such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While many experts often make complicated solutions look simple, 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 a few basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to get desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things function as expected, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your web server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we create a simple flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your hosting account specifically for handling 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 positive traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites and services.
Configuring External Sites
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your network, content with links pointing back to your website gets automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and business will benefit from increased exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some of these third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google, you can use the information with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, you can add traffic tracking code to WordPress via a simple plugin and send data instantly to various other online applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account, you can use this information with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) 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 version if you are planning to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated web traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add an RSS feed from your site …
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 visitors can follow your page.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications that can be added to your own traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings 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 ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress administration area includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen 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 box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your 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.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to ping various update services whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using WP permalinks here: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s 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. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to bots and hackers.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their own friends and networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website with WordPress plugins.
Most social sharing plugins let you specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as clicking a few buttons to configure your options and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Additional Configuration Areas For Your WordPress Site
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate online business practices.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site, see this article:
Post Tags & Categories
Tags & categories help search engines better organize and index your pages, which improves traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins 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 – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a link pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is add content regularly to automatically attract web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website developers a long time 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 section of our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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