Tag: WordPress Traffic

Welcome to Part 5 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to grow your business online automatically using WordPress.

So far, we have covered the following in this article series:

In Part One of this article series, we describe the traffic automation process, and explain why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …

(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is add great content on a consistent basis to begin attracting new web traffic!)

In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of this system. We helped you understand 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 website was built with WordPress.

(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)

In Part Three, we focused on the configuration phase. We configured all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that affect your site’s traffic-getting ability …

(In Part 3 you will configure all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically)

In Part 4, we discussed ways to automate traffic to your website with plugins.

(Publish content once and automate your content distribution to all other channels!)

In this article, we look at ways to optimize traffic to your website using various tools and strategies.

WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Traffic Optimization Systems

In addition to having an expertly configured WordPress site, generating traffic successfully on a consistent basis is the product of a clear business vision, careful digital planning, and good systems and process in place.

(Automated traffic is the result of having a clear business vision, sound planning, and systems)

Let’s review briefly the systems that will help you grow and manage all traffic.

These include:

• Marketing Systems – The processes and strategies used to create new traffic for your business.
• Technical Systems – How you keep your digital presence operating efficiently for receiving new traffic.
• Business Systems – How you manage and respond to traffic.

(Systems help you grow, automate, optimize, and manage your traffic)

Let’s review the importance of the above systems briefly:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and methods used to create traffic for your website. You can test your marketing systems by asking questions such as:

• What channels do you plan to use to drive traffic (e.g. blogging, video marketing, etc)?
• How will you allocate your budget and resources to these channels?
• How will you create and optimize your content and marketing campaigns?
• How will you track conversions and measure the results of your campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising to help generate some initial intelligence. If you’re tracking your marketing campaigns correctly, this should yield some actionable data, such as the keywords people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create web content targeted specifically to your audience’s needs.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems and processes keep your online presence operating efficiently for receiving traffic. There’s no point sending traffic to your website if your site is down or your web pages take too long to load.

Your technical systems need to adequately handle technical areas like webhosting, website maintenance and support, installing, configuring, and updating software (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.

You can test your technical systems by questions such as:

• Who is looking after my server?
• Who looks after my website and keeps my site, plugins, themes, etc. maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should problems occur?

Many potential issues can be minimized if your website planning process and setup and configuration phases have been completed correctly. As with all technology, however, there will always be new problems. Your technical systems need to be robust enough to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good business systems to help you manage and respond to traffic. This includes:

• Communication systems
• Resources management – human, financial
• Handling sales enquiries
• Order fulfillment
• Customer training/service
• etc.

If you plan to outsource areas of your digital marketing and technical services, then make sure you have implemented good systems to manage all outsourcing processes.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Traffic Optimization

If your business objectives are clear and your systems and processes are in place, all you need to focus on is developing and optimizing your “traffic loop”.

Let’s go through an example of how to implement, optimize, and further automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the chart below …

(Implementing and optimizing your traffic loop)

Increase Reach & Visibility Online

The first step of the process is to increase visibility for your website.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• An expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically distribute your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content through your expertly configured WordPress site.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising can help generate some initial actionable data, which you can use to create web content better targeted to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to bring more traffic using methods like paid ads, social media, cross promotions, etc.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

We’ve covered many useful tools, plugins, and strategies in previous sections of this article series.

Also, if you haven’t already, contact us to learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your WordPress site:

• Share your posts online with others,
• Run contests, offer downloads or discounts for likes/shares,
• Add user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Distribute content online in different media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, audio, etc.)

Build Authority & Credibility

Getting more of your content out there is good, but for this activity to be really effective, your content needs to build authority and credibility with users.

Publishing higher quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting more views from social sharing and hence more traffic.

Useful Tips And Ideas

• Create and publish content that will add value to users and showcase your expertise. This includes content that informs and educates readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing a special report that you can sell or distribute online.

Tools And Methods

We have created an entire email course on content creation that you can plug into for free here:

Also, if you haven’t already, see other posts and tutorials on this site to learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your website:

• Legal Pages
• Testimonials
• Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
• Ratings
• User Reviews
• Badges/Certificates Of Trust

Grow Influence And Engagement

As your business grows, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting an online group.

With “Traffic On Tap,” most of your traffic will come from customers or subscribers – people who already know you and trust you. Your influence and reputation can be used to generate traffic with every blog post you publish, forum post you add, or email you send out.

Tips

• Encourage users to leave comments and start discussions on your site.
• Add an autoresponder newsletter and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a paid or free membership site, online forum, or social community.
• Start or join a Facebook/LinkedIn Group.

Tools, Plugins, And Strategies

Many solutions and WordPress plugins are available that are easy to implement and can help increase your influence and improve engagement. For example:

• Autoresponders/Email Newsletters (e.g. Aweber, MailChimp, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums and Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls & Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, video galleries, etc.

Identify Problems & Provide Solutions To These

By taking advantage of incoming traffic to listen to what problems your users are trying to solve, you can have an endless funnel of ideas for developing new products and services, all of which provide new opportunities to generate additional traffic.

Useful Tips

• Create a free or paid e-learning program.
• Consider publishing a special report or PDF guide that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on on the Amazon Kindle book store.
• Consider adding e-commerce to your business.

Plugins, Tools, And Methods

If you plan to provide solutions online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful WordPress plugins you may want to consider adding to your site include:

• Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• e-Learning Courses (e.g. Courseware)
• Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)

Analyze Data & Feedback

The final step of the process is the collection and analysis of data. By learning to interpret data gathered from existing traffic, you can discover new ways to generate content that can bring you additional traffic.

You should already have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics) on your website. Make sure you also learn how to interpret the data.

WordPress Traffic System – Summary

Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is repeat the process, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and get better your results.

In summary:

• Start with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by solid marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (consider adding some paid advertising to drive traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions as necessary to build authority and credibility, and also to increase engagement with visitors,
• Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
• Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.

Hopefully, now you have a blueprint that will help you drive more visitors automatically to your WordPress web site and get better results online.

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