Tag: WordPress Traffic Blueprint

Welcome to Part Five of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using WordPress.

So far, we have covered the following in this article series:

In Part 1, we provided an overview of the traffic automation process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …

(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is add new content on a regular basis to automatically begin attracting new traffic!)

In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website has been built using WordPress.

(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)

In Part Three, we focused on configuring WordPress. We configured all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability …

(In Part Three you will configure hosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)

In Part Four, we showed you how to set up various plugins that can bring visitors automatically to your website when you begin posting content.

(Publish once to WordPress and automate the distribution of your content to all other marketing channels!)

In this article, we look at ways to optimize the traffic system using a number of tools and methods.

WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Systems

In addition to getting your WordPress site expertly configured, generating quality traffic on a consistent basis is the result of a clearly-defined business vision, careful digital planning, and great systems and process in place.

(Automating traffic is the result of a business vision, sound planning, and excellent systems)

Let’s review the systems that will help you grow and manage this traffic.

These include:

• Marketing Systems – The processes and methods used to create new traffic for your website.
• Technical Systems – The systems and processes used to ensure that your online presence remains operating efficiently for receiving traffic.
• Business Systems – The systems and processes used to manage and respond to new traffic.

(Use systems to grow, automate, and manage your web traffic)

Let’s review the above systems briefly:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to drive new traffic to your business. You can test your online marketing systems by asking questions such as:

• What is your content marketing strategy?
• What resources and portion of your budget will you assign to these channels?
• How will you create and optimize your content and run your marketing campaigns?
• How will you test and measure the cost-effectiveness of your online campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Google AdWords) to help you generate some initial data, such as the keyword phrases people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create web content better targeted to your audience.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems ensure that your online presence remains up and running for receiving new traffic. There’s no point driving traffic to your site if your site is constantly down or your web pages are taking a long time to load.

Your systems include handling technical areas like webhosting, website maintenance and support, installing and updating new applications (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.

You can test your technical systems by questions such as:

• Who will look after my server?
• Who looks after my website and keeps my site maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should anything go wrong?

Many potential problems can be minimized if your planning and setup and configuration phases have been done correctly. As with all technology, however, you should expect new problems to arise. Your technical systems need to be robust enough to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good operational systems and processes to help you manage and respond to the influx of traffic. These include:

• Communication systems
• Managing human and financial resources
• Handling leads and sales enquiries
• Order fulfillment
• Customer service/training
• etc.

If you intend to outsource your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then make sure you have implemented good systems to manage all outsourcing.

WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Loops

If your business objectives are clear and your systems and processes are in place, all you need to do is to focus on growing, optimizing and further automating your “traffic loop”.

Let’s go through an example of how to implement, optimize, and further automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the illustration below …

(Implementing an effective traffic loop)

Increase Reach And Visibility Online

Step 1 of the process is to increase visibility for your website or blog.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• Your expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically syndicate your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content through your expertly configured WordPress site.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Facebook ads) can help you generate data, which you can use to create content targeted specifically to your audience’s needs.
• Repurpose your content to leverage the power, appeal, and reach of different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to bring more web visitors using methods like paid ads, PPC advertising, StumbleUpon, etc.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

See earlier sections of this tutorial series for many excellent tools and methods we’ve already covered to help you reach more potential users.

Also, contact us to learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your website:

• Share your posts online with others,
• Run contests, offer downloads or discounts for likes/shares,
• Add user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Publish and distribute content online in different media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, infographics, etc.)

Build Authority & Credibility

Getting more of your content published is a great first step, but for this activity to be really effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with visitors.

Publishing better quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting more people to link to it and share it with others and hence more traffic.

Tips

• Focus on creating content that will add value to potential visitors and showcase your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, case studies, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing a special report or even an e-book that can be sold or distributed online.

Tools & Methods

We have created a detailed course on content creation that you can plug into at no cost here:

Also, if you haven’t already, see other posts on this site to learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your website or blog:

• Legal Pages
• Testimonials
• Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
• Ratings
• User Reviews
• Badges/Certificates Of Trust

Grow Influence & Engagement

At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting an online community.

With “Traffic On Tap,” your traffic comes from customers or subscribers – people who already know you and trust you. Your influence and reputation can be used to generate new traffic with a single blog post or broadcast.

Tips

• Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
• Add an autoresponder training course and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a free, paid, or ‘freemium’ membership site, online forum, or social community.
• Create or join an online group on LinkedIn.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

There are many solutions and plugins that are easy to implement and can help increase your online influence and improve user engagement. For example:

• Autoresponders (e.g. Aweber, MailChimp, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums and Discussion Groups (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls & Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, image galleries, etc.

Identify Needs And Provide Solutions To These

If you take advantage of incoming traffic to find out what your visitors are looking for, you can develop new solutions, all of which provide new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.

Useful Tips

• Create a free or paid e-learning course.
• Publish an instructional PDF guide that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on Amazon.
• Consider adding an e-commerce store to your site.

Tools And Strategies

If you plan to provide products and services online (as opposed to just providing information), see other posts and tutorials on this site to learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your site:

• Membership Sites (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• e-Learning Courses (e.g. Courseware)
• Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)

Analyze Data & Feedback

The final step of the process is to collect and analyze data. Learning to interpret data gathered from existing traffic lets you discover new traffic opportunities.

Hopefully, by now you already have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics) on your site. Make sure you understand the metrics and can interpret the data.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Summary

Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is rinse and repeat, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and improve your results.

In summary:

• Begin with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by solid marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (consider also investing in some paid advertising to drive initial traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions if needed to build authority and credibility, and also to increase engagement with visitors,
• Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
• Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.

Hopefully, now you have a blueprint that will help you automate and optimize the process of driving traffic to your web site and get better results online.

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