Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generating 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 is add content consistently to attract more web traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of this process. 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 website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that traffic will automatically start flowing as you begin to add fresh content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and are looking for any and every advantage they can to increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage. An expertly configured website gives your business a flying start as soon as your 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 its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the main difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is going fine in the widget factory 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 fix the problem.
The expert arrives shortly after being summoned and, without saying a word, immediately heads towards the main control box. After staring at the schematics for what seems like 3 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer from his shirt pocket and makes a gentle tap near the left edge of the control unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and returns once more to normal.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a bill for $5,000.
Outraged and bewildered, the factory manager dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP site configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although many experts often make difficult things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get desired results
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure processes will work as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. It’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your web site, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of external sites and online services.
External Accounts
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all of your content gets posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external sites into your traffic system, content linking back to your site gets automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and business will be given exposure to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some web properties and online platforms will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress 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 before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your Google Search Console account and entering site data, you can use this information with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking information can be added to all of your web pages in WordPress using a Google Analytics plugin and automatically sent to other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account, your account details can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option 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 with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article 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 to set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and get new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and pages set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 own RebelMouse website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up 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 …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in 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.
The main setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to 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, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global 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 sites 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring post permalinks)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial: Setting Up WordPress Permalinks
WordPress – Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help improve traffic generation
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your 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 ignore the importance of web security.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google and Bing find and index your website …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their own friends and networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins allow you to select which social 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 likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress – Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Important Sections To Configure
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories & Tags
Tags and post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your pages.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although search engines like Google will 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 results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Another Source Of Web Traffic!
When visitors searching for your site type in the wrong URL or click on an invalid link, they will typically be presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
A 404 Error Page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to bring more web traffic is post new content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals 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 section of the series.
This is the end of Part Three
To keep reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress website and proven online marketing methods.
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