Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically begin bringing more traffic is publish new content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start 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 website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing whenever you add content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition becoming increasingly more difficult businesses are researching every advantage they can that can help you get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off with a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes All The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site 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 describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take more labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s an amusing story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is humming along in the gizmo manufacturing plant when suddenly, things comes to a stop.
As no one can figure out what is wrong, the floor manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for less than 5 minutes, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer from his utility belt and makes a gentle tap near the right-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, the assembly line returns to normal.
The plant manager is greatly overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a service bill for $5,000.
Angry to the point of feeling outrage, the factory manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Demanding to know why the expert has charged them so much for less than five minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for having invested years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP site configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although many experts often make complicated solutions look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to get specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that things function to plan, 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 so technically challenging, it can be quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a solution, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different components such as your web hosting server, your site, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart 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 take a look at these areas in more detail.
Configuring The Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your website will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and online services.
Third-Party Services
The purpose of adding external sites is that all content gets posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it radiates outwards automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your website will be automatically published on these platforms. Your content and website will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the process 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with important information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
Once your Google Search Console account and site details have been set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account and site data, account information can be added to all of your pages in WordPress via plugins used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site data with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, this information can be used with 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 platform if you plan to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your web traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking 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 get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, 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 choose those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a 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 your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website Or Blog For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes 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 traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As described in this 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 ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(You can 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 Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your 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.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping all the update services you have specified in the Update Services box whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up WordPress permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of 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 simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your website.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
Go here for more details:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(WordPress Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their social networks can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins allow you to choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure options and settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Additional Sections
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Legally Compliant?)
To learn more about how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog, refer to this article:
WordPress Post Categories & Tags
Tags & categories help search engines index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although Google can index your pages just using 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 404 Page Not Found
When visitors searching for your website type in the wrong URL or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they are presented with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add fresh content regularly to attract new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes some website professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To keep reading, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping site owners learn how to grow their business online and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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