Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we described the process, and 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 is publish web content on a consistent basis to automatically generate traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing just by consistently posting fresh content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business becoming so much more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth exploring any and every opportunity you can to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For business owners, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s an amusing little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Everything is running smoothly in the widget-making plant when things come to a sudden stop.
As no one can figure out what went wrong, the plant manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads directly towards the control box. After staring silently at the control unit for 5 minutes, the expert then produces a teensy-weensy little hammer from his tool box and makes a single tap about 1 inch from the bottom-right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, all machinery inside the assembly line returns once more to normal.
The floor manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Bewildered and angry, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were charged so much for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social media 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 driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make complicated things look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve desired outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things will function as expected, etc.
(Driving new 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. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a plugin, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your web hosting server, your web site, and various third-party sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web-hosting account 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 can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure various third-party sites.
External Services
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all of your content should be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you add these external sites to your network, content linking back to your site will be automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and business will then receive additional exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some of these web properties and online solutions will need to be 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, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site data, use this information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up Google Analytics, you can add visitor tracking code to WordPress using a plugin and feed data instantly to other useful applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site details with Bing, you can use this information with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with 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 tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social accounts set up in order to integrate these with 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
You should have pages set up with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your page.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
The WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen 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 section
By default, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified 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 visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears 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 blog to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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 main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically ping various update services 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 …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings)
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 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring post permalinks)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, go here: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to increase traffic
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website 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 website is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
For more information, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web content more indexable …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your website’s ability to rank better in search engines)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their own friends and networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social sharing plugins let you choose 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 likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
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 site, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Other Areas
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance 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 unwelcome 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 (or plan to), it’s important that your site stays compliant with government legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
We have created a detailed article on the importance of having a legally compliant website here:
Post Tags & Categories
WordPress tags and post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(WordPress categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your site’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that displays 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 website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
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 plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Your Site’s 404 Page
When visitors searching for your website type in the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect 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 page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do is post fresh content regularly to start generating more traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some website professionals months 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 addressed in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint 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 series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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