Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and 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 fresh content on a consistent basis to attract new traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your website has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We explain how to configure a WordPress site to automatically begin to get visitors just by consistently adding new content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive worldwide and businesses are looking for any and every advantage they believe will help them get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge competitive advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the word “go”.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
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 its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is additional labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with an amusing little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Everything is going just fine in the gizmo-making workshop when production suddenly comes to a complete stop.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert goes immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the control unit for 5 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a single tap about three and half inches from the left edge of the box.
Immediately, the whole workshop lights up and springs to life once again.
The floor manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Confused and outraged, the manager rings the expert. Why did he charge them so much for less than 5 minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production stopped working and no one in the factory floor was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to quickly avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a blog fully set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although experts often make complex things look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than just installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up to get specific outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure in order to ensure that things function as planned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing a solution, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different components including your web server, your website, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and bad traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like implementing server-level spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites or online services.
Configuring External Sites
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will radiate outwards to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external services have been added to your system, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically added to these platforms. Your business will then be given added exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of these sites and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site to speed up the process 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 settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google, this information can be used with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, you can add visitor tracking information to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and send data instantly to various other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account has been with Bing are set up, use this information with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Pages
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social 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 accounts and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various platforms you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. 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 third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Web Site
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.
Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
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 specifically configured your settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, 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
***
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 on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact 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 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 check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically ping the list of 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 unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – 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 sites linked to from your content, 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
The examples below show some of the ways post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
If you need help setting up WordPress permalinks, refer to this tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is completely safe from a cyber attack.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and bots.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving your site’s ability to rank better in search engines)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social sharing 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 areas on your site which visitors 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 help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design aspects of your website, many themes also provide built-in options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics, 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 and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Configuring Additional WordPress Sections
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you do any type of business online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your website complies with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
WordPress Categories And Tags
Categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stages.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although Google will index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin 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 – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong web address or click on links pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they are presented with a 404 page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up on your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is publish great content consistently to automatically begin attracting more web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process typically takes some website developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Are Published – Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
***