Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically drive web traffic is post new content consistently!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. The focus of this section is to help you understand why an expertly configured WordPress site is different than a professionally configured website, and what type of work is required to ensure that when everything is set up and fully configured, you can automatically drive new traffic when you start posting fresh content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive and are exploring every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage. For business owners, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their website is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
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 you.
Here’s one way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
A Semi-True Story …
All was going well in the widget manufacturing plant when all of a sudden, all machines ground to a complete stop.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for no more than 2 minutes or so, the expert then produced a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool box and made a very gentle tap near the left-hand edge of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine in the factory floor came back to life.
The floor manager was greatly overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and called the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged such a ridiculously high fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to be compensated fairly for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your blog configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately 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 website?)
While many experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than just installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for the client. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure things will function how you expect, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many parts including your web hosting server, your WordPress site, and various external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration process)
Let’s take a brief look at these areas.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web server that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your site may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess file redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
External Accounts
The basic concept of choosing external sites is that all content will get posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external services into your traffic network, content linking back to your website will be automatically syndicated to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and business benefits from added exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to 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 Webmasters
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use this information to automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your account, account data can be integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, this information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional business presence online.
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 explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social accounts before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your page.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your own web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in the Update Services 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, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress 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 in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping all the update services you have listed whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
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 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
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks Section)
The examples below show some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Configuring Your WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief 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 dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to attacks from hackers and bots.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to 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 Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their friends and members of their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website with free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you specify 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 likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users 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 can help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Additional Configuration Steps For WordPress Sites
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Post Tags & Categories
Tags and post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search optimization.
(Categories help search engines classify and index your web pages, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be set up during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
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 applications discover more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although Google can index your pages just using 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.
Configure Your WordPress 404 Page
When visitors searching online for your website enter the wrong web address into their browser or click on a hyperlink pointing to a page on your site that no longer exists, they are greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 error page) …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then is add content on a regular basis to automatically start generating new traffic.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take some website professionals a long time 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 explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
- Web Traffic Blueprint Part Four – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into A Traffic Machine
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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