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 provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is post great content consistently to drive more traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained 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 existing website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that traffic will automatically start flowing whenever you add content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale and businesses are exploring every opportunity they can to improve their performance online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, your business has an immediate competitive advantage from the word “go”.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
A Semi-True Story …
Things were going well in the widget assembly factory when everything came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert immediately went towards the main control box. After staring silently at the box for 5 minutes, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about 2 cm from the top-left side of the unit.
Immediately, the assembly line returned to normal.
The manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The manager called the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such a ridiculously high fee for less than five minutes work and promptly 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 drive new visitors consistently to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your website configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social followers from sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and dozens of other online 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 site?)
While the solution to many challenges often seems quite easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get desired results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to ensure that everything functions as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and complicated. It’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your server, your website, and a number of external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings in your webhosting account that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of third-party sites and services.
External Sites & Accounts – Configuration
The purpose of adding external sites is that all content is published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it then gets distributed automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your system, content pointing back to your website gets automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will benefit from additional exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of the third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your Google Webmasters account is set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, traffic tracking code can be added to WordPress using a plugin and instantly sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site data with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, you can use this information with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to grow a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media accounts before you can 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 pages and bring new traffic to your site.
You should set up profiles with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add an RSS feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
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 account.
There are many different sites and platforms you can add to your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration plan 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 site.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice 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 here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services section when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – 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 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 enable your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s post permalinks …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With Permalinks
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every type 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
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling 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, securing your websites is something you simply cannot ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with WordPress plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social share plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress 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 design and layout of your website, many themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings and options for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your content is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your settings and enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Configuration Areas For Your WordPress Site
Last (but by no means least) in the traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article on the importance of having a legally compliant website here:
Post Categories & Tags
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help search engines better classify and index your web pages, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can interpret an XML sitemap. Although Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a dead hyperlink, they will normally be greeted with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(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 web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting more web traffic is publish content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes some web developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business with a WordPress website and proven online marketing strategies.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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