Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is post web content regularly to automatically start generating new traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. 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 site, and what to do if your site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of this process. The focus of this section is to help you understand why an expertly configured site is different than a professionally configured site, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is fully set up and configured, you can automatically get visitors just by posting content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are looking for any and every advantage available to improve their results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage over the competition. For businesses, 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 significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take additional work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was humming along in the widget factory when things came to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what has gone wrong and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately walked to the main control box. After staring at the board for about 2 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny little hammer from his tool belt and made a single tap about 3 cm from the bottom-left side of the control unit.
Immediately, the machinery started working as before.
The manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager received a bill for $5,000.
The factory manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such a ludicrous fee for less than five minutes work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived 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 traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt 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 get paid fairly for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress web site set up 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 this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While the solution to many challenges is often quite easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than installing a website and configuring a few internal settings. It 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 get specific results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to make sure processes will run as expected, etc.
(Driving 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. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring a plugin, clicking a button, or tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different parts such as your server, your web site, and a number of external sites and online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps.
Configuring Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling 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 you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step is to set up and configure a number of external sites and/or online solutions.
External Sites And Accounts – Configuration
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all of your content should be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After incorporating these external sites into your setup, content pointing back to your website will be automatically fed to search, social and aggregator sites. Your business will then receive exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to 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 Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account, you can use the account information to automate web 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 website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up Google Analytics, you can add your account information to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and send data instantly to various other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing, this information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated web traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media accounts before you can 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 sites and attract new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are many different platforms you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please 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 third-party sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
WordPress – Global Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As stated in this 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, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section includes only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 have an influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view the rest of the content from excerpts, 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 most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to notify your list of update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to bring more visitors to your site
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
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, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
Go here for more info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages more indexable …
(WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, classify and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with members of their own social communities can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing to your site easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social sharing plugins let you choose which social 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 protect content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring Settings – WP Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, some themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Additional Configuration Features For WordPress Sites
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the components 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 visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle good and bad 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 engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), you need to make sure that your site complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Site Legally Compliant?)
For a detailed article on why it’s important to have a compliant website, refer to this article:
Post Categories & Tags
WordPress categories & tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be reviewed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post 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, it can also help external tools discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
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 interpret. Although Google can index your pages just from 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 This!
When online visitors enter the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they are presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(Default WordPress 404 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 recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website or blog fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do to automatically bring web traffic is post great content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business using a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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