Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is add great content consistently to automatically begin attracting traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. 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 website, and what to do if your website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing just by publishing content to your site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most 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 and every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can be a huge competitive advantage. For WordPress users, an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very beginning.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Everything is going well in the gizmo-making workshop when things suddenly comes to a complete stop.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the floor manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walks immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the control unit for no more than 5 minutes, the expert then produces a little hammer and makes a gentle tap about one and half cm from the right-hand side of the box.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and springs to life again.
The plant manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
With a sense of outrage, the manager calls the expert. Why were they expected to pay so much for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress blog fully configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other 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?)
Although many experts often make complicated situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than simply installing a website and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which services you need to set up to achieve specific results
- Which options you need to configure in order to ensure that everything will work to plan, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different components including your web hosting server, your site, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these areas.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is configuring settings in your server specifically for handling web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your business may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
After your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites or online services.
External Services
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all content will be published from one central location (your site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external sites to your configuration, content pointing back to your website will be automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your website will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings 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 before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Search Console account, you can use this information to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add tracking code to WordPress via plugins and send data instantly to many other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing, this information can be used with web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers 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 a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up 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 accounts and get new visitors to your site.
You should have pages set up with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various solutions you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your 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 admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – 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 configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section displays only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services 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
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 web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog 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 most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to ping the list of update services whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s post permalinks …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that can add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to improve traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, securing your site is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easy for search engines like Google to index …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website 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)
WordPress Traffic System – Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, 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 as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Post Tags And Categories
WordPress post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your website.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be set up during the Website Planning Stage.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When online users enter the wrong URL into their browser or click on a hyperlink pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they are greeted with an error – page not found message …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up on your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is post new content on a consistent basis to start driving web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform the configuration process typically takes some web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly 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 section of the series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively with a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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