Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do to automatically generate more web traffic is add great content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. 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 site, and what to do if your existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will explain what makes an expertly configured site different than a professionally configured one, and just what kind of work needs to be done to ensure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically begin attracting new traffic just by regularly publishing fresh content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive worldwide and businesses are researching every opportunity they can to improve their performance online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having a significant competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take extra work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this point here is a story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things are humming along in the widget factory when all of a sudden, all machines stops.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walks directly towards the main control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for about 5 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool box and makes a single tap near the left-hand side of the unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and springs back to life.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager receives an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
Bewildered to the point of feeling outrage, the factory manager calls the expert. Why were they charged such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to be compensated fairly for having spent years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a site configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While many experts often make complicated solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up to achieve certain results
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure things work as expected, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a solution, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling 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 traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and/or online services.
External Sites & Services – Configuration
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all content should be published from one central location (your site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your system, content pointing back to your site will get automatically posted to these platforms. Your business will then be given exposure to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some external sites and online solutions will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help 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 Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of important data, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account and site details with Google are set up, use your account information to automate web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, 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 all of your pages in WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and send data instantly to many other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site details with Bing have been set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your 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 sites and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your own traffic system. 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 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 make sure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
The WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
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 – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services field
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list of update services to this section …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables WordPress to instantly ping all the update services you have listed whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – 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 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)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up permalinks, go here: Changing Your WordPress Permalinks
WP Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress 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 web sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more information, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins allow you to 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 plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
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 website, many themes also provide built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with government regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site, refer to this article:
Tags And Categories
WordPress post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your web pages.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your website’s categories and tags during the Website Planning Phases.
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 categories you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover more of your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google will index your site 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 results in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a link pointing to a page on your site that no longer exists, they will typically be greeted with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to begin bringing more web traffic is post great content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge required to perform this 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 as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To keep reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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