Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to begin attracting new web traffic is publish great content regularly!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. We helped you understand 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of this process. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that new traffic will automatically start flowing as you begin adding fresh content on your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and are looking for every advantage they can to improve their performance and results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over the competition. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site 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 one way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take additional labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things were going well in the widget-making assembly line when suddenly, everything ground to a stop.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed out directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the circuit board for 2 minutes or so, the expert then took out a tiny hammer and made a very gentle tap about two inches from the top-right corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything sprang to life.
The manager was greatly relieved 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 bill for $5,000.
The factory manager picked up the phone and called the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such an exorbitant fee for so little time delivering a minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a blog fully set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other 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 site?)
While the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up to achieve desired results
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure things work as planned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your web server, your website, and a number of third-party sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing 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 site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like integrating spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess file redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure a number of external sites and services.
3rd-Party Sites Integration
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically published on these platforms. Your business receives increased exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some web properties and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to help save time 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 Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, use your details 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 results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, you can add traffic tracking information to WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and feed data automatically to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account has been set up, you can use your information with traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers both a self-hosted and a hosted option. 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 various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your various 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 drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(There are loads of social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings – WordPress
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can 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
***
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 have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text 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 to get the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly notify the update services list when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Screen)
Here are some of the options for configuring your permalinks …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: Changing Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable 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
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is completely immune from a cyber-attack.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more indexable …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find and 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.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress – Traffic Generation Theme Features
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 the layout and design of your site, many themes also provide built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics 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 clicking a couple of buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Other Features
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance 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 bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do business online (or plan to), it’s important that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website, go here:
WordPress Tags And Categories
Categories & post tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your website to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors 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!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from 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 – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors searching for your site type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do to attract traffic is add fresh content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform this process typically takes many website developers months to acquire.
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 covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published – Subscribe Using The Form Below!
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
***