Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generating machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to begin attracting more traffic is add web content on a regular basis!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration stage of this process. We will show you what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured one. You will also discover how much work needs to be done to make sure that when everything is set up and fully configured, new visitors will automatically start flowing when you begin posting new content to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business getting ever more competitive worldwide, it’s worth exploring every opportunity you can to get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over other competitors. Having an expertly configured website gives your business an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps required 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 story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is moving along in the widget-making manufacturing plant when things suddenly comes to a stop.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately walks to the main control box. After staring silently at the wiring diagrams for less than 2 minutes, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer and makes a single tap about one cm from the left-hand corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything comes back to life.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Angrily, the factory manager calls the expert. Why had he charged them such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the factory stand to lose when production 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 be compensated fairly for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and repair a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WP website or blog fully set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although many experts often make complex solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which services you need to set up and activate to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything functions as planned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your web hosting server, your website or blog, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we create a simple flowchart of the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your website will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like configuring spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of third-party sites.
Integration With External Sites
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all of your content is posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your network, content linked back to your website will be automatically syndicated to these platforms. Your site will receive exposure online, helping your business tap into a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of the sites will need to have accounts 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:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of useful data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site details with Google have been set up, your details can be used to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add tracking code to all of your web pages in WordPress via a plugin and send data instantly to many other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account, you can use this information to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, 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 this into your web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social accounts set up before you can configure these as part of 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 bring new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts set up with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different platforms you can add to your own traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, 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 available …
(WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section …
(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
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 to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to read 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 in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to notify various update services whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
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 articles, 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
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
If you need help setting up permalinks, see this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to bring more visitors to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
You can easily add social features to your website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring Settings – Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your site, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes have built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Important Areas To Consider
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress website, go here:
Categories & Post Tags
Tags and categories help search engines better classify and index your website, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s categories and tags should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Page
When online users enter the wrong web address into their browser or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then to automatically begin bringing more web traffic is publish content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and 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 covered in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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