Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically bring more web traffic is publish great content consistently!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will understand what makes an expertly configured site different than a professionally configured one, and how much work needs to be done to ensure that when all is fully set up and configured, you will start attracting new visitors automatically when you publish fresh content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business becoming so much more competitive, it’s worth exploring every opportunity you can to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over other competitors. For business owners, an expertly configured website means having a significant competitive advantage from the word “go”.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to describe the key difference:
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 system!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a joke.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Things are going just fine in the gizmo-making assembly line when everything suddenly grounds to a halt.
No one can figure out what went wrong and so the manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
The expert arrives shortly afterward and, without uttering a word, immediately heads towards the main control box. After staring at the schematics for what seems like 5 minutes or less, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny little hammer from his shirt pocket and makes a gentle tap near the bottom-left corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything starts working once more.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a request of payment for services for the sum of $5,000.
Outraged and furious, the manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they have been charged such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to get paid fairly for having spent years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a web site set up and configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be instantly 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 website?)
While many experts often make difficult things look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure everything will function as envisioned, etc.
(Generating web 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. This is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of different parts including your web server, your WP site, and a number of external sites or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your hosting account that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites.
External Services
The basic idea of choosing external sites is that all of your content will get published from a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your configuration, content linking back to your site will be automatically syndicated to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and website will be given additional exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to 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 before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
Once your Google Search Console account and site details are set up, your details can be used to automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, account information can be easily integrated with WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and automatically sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, you can use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, 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 business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this article 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 to have already set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts in order to configure these as part of 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 pages and bring new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and pages set up with all the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different solutions you can add to your web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
Configuring Your WordPress Site For Traffic
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 of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Writing Settings – Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(You can 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 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 to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds 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 site to view 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 in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify various update services when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
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 posts, 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WordPress permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using SEO-Friendly URLs
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security 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 blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
For more information, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugins For SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also lets you specify how to present your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with members of their social communities can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing to your website using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with WordPress plugins.
Many social share plugins let you select which sites your content can be shared 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 site which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Traffic Features In Themes
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 website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Configuration Areas For WordPress Traffic Automation
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article on the importance of having a legally compliant website, refer to this article:
Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help search engines better organize and index your website, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s categories and tags should be set up during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that lists all of your site’s 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 different things. Only search engines can interpret XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins 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.
404 Page Not Found – Another Source Of Traffic!
When online visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found page can redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is add new content consistently to start generating new web traffic.
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 Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some web professionals months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing methods.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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