Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting web traffic is publish great content regularly!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of the blueprint. 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 site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of this process. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to bring new visitors automatically simply by posting content on a consistent basis to your site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase
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 ever more competitive worldwide and are exploring any and every advantage they can to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage. With an expertly configured website, your business has a significant advantage from the word “go”.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here is a simple way to describe the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here is a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
All was humming along in the gizmo assembly factory when everything ground to a sudden halt.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a tiny hammer from his pocket and made a single tap near the right-hand edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything came back to life.
The manager was greatly overjoyed 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 service bill for $5,000.
The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they were charged such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to get paid fairly for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WP web site set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although many experts often make complex things look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get desired outcomes
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that processes will run as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a plugin, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of various different components including your web hosting server, your site, and a number of external sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simple flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web-hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your business will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites and services.
External Sites & Solutions – Configuration
The basic concept of setting up external sites is that all of your content will get posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external services into your system, content linking back to your website gets automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and website will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of these web properties and online platforms will need to be set up before configuring your site to 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)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with useful data, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use this information with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, you can add visitor tracking information to WordPress via a Google Analytics plugin and send data automatically to other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, use your information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers both a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media accounts in order to 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 accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
Set up accounts and profile pages with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse account.
There are various sites and platforms that can be added to your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Screen)
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 specifically chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section and WordPress takes care of the rest …
(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, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website 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 main setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly ping all the update services you have specified in the Update Services area when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
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 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugins
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can improve traffic generation
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. No site is guaranteed immunity from cyberattacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here for more info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Many social plugins allow you to choose which 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 shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also give you built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other Features Of WordPress For More Traffic Results
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog, go here:
WordPress Post Categories And Tags
Post tags & categories help search engines index your website, which improves traffic.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, 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 WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is code that only search engines can interpret. Although Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Page
When visitors searching for your website type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they will normally be greeted with a 404 page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then is post fresh content regularly to automatically begin bringing new web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process typically takes some web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly 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 our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To keep reading, click here:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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