Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically attract new traffic is post fresh content regularly!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of the automation process. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically get web traffic when you begin adding new content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and businesses are exploring any advantage they believe will help them get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over the competition. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very start.
The Configuration Phase Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s a simple way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take additional work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
Everything was moving along in the widget workshop when suddenly, things ground to a halt.
As no one could figure out what happened, the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
The expert arrived within 30 minutes and walked immediately to the control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a tiny little hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap near the right side of the unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lit up and sprang to life again.
The manager was greatly overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, 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 expected to pay such a large amount of money for less than five minutes work. He then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the machines stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
Although many experts often make difficult solutions look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure in order to ensure that everything will work as planned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a process that involves your server, your website, and various external sites and/or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Configuring The Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your server that affect how your site 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 traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like implementing spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites.
Integration With External Sites
The concept behind adding external sites is that all content will get posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external sites into your setup, content with links pointing back to your site gets automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social networks, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and website will be exposed to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the process 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with useful information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmasters, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account has been set up, visitor tracking data can be easily integrated with WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site data are set up, use your account information with traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(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 various social media accounts before you can integrate these with 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 attract new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications that can be incorporated into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful 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 have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services section
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post to this section …
(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 Settings
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 influence traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to get 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 main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services box when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although discussion settings 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalinks …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website 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 cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to bot and hacker attacks.
To learn more, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving improving the way search engines like Google and Bing find, classify and index your website …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugins For SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you post 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 to their website with free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social share plugins let you select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting 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 site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
Configuring Other WordPress Settings For More Traffic Results
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle 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 make money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site stays compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Is Your Site Legally Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a compliant website, go here:
WordPress Post Tags And Categories
WordPress tags and categories help search engines classify and index your website, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines better organize and index your pages, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is code that only search engines can read. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your website enter the wrong web address into their browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover 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 Not Found page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then to automatically start attracting traffic is add content consistently.
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 Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many 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 addressed in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively using a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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