Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to automatically start generating new traffic is add fresh content consistently!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to automatically begin bringing web traffic as you begin posting fresh content to your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming so much more competitive worldwide and businesses are looking for any and every advantage available to get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge competitive advantage. With an expertly configured website, your business has a significant advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Phase 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 an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let me illustrate this with an amusing anecdote.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is going fine in the gizmo workshop when everything suddenly grounds to a stop.
No one can figure out what’s wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without uttering a word, heads out directly to the main control box. After staring at the board for no more than 3 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool belt and makes a very gentle tap about three cm from the left-hand corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything comes back to life.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Outraged and furious, the manager calls the expert. Why were they expected to pay so much for less than five minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one on the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While the solution to many problems may seem ridiculously easy once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get certain results
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that processes will run as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically difficult, it can be quite complicated. This is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of many components such as your web server, your site, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your web hosting account that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure a number of external sites.
Configuring External Sites
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content should be published from one central location (your site) and from there, radiate outwards to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external services to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically added to these platforms. Your business will receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these web properties and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of important information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, your information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, account information can be integrated with WordPress using a plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account, this information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, 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 web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media accounts in order to 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 sites and drive new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can You can post your content to lots of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can add to your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
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.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
As stated in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
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 readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services area whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Screen)
Here are some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress Plugin Settings – Configuration
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality imaginable 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 WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is immune from cyber attacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site with WordPress plugins)
You can easily add social sharing to your site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins let you select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WP Traffic Generation Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings and options for better traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Features
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories And Tags
WordPress categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Phase.
When configuring your website or blog to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a logical map of how your content is structured, whereas XML sitemaps are code that only search bots can understand. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Page Not Found
When visitors searching for your website type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on a link pointing to a page on your site that no longer exists, they are presented with an error – page not found message …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found 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 Not Found page can be set up on your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do is post fresh content on a consistent basis to automatically attract new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website professionals 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 article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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