Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is add new content regularly to automatically begin bringing web traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site has been built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that new visitors will automatically start flowing whenever you publish content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and are researching any and every advantage they believe will get better results online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with a story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going just fine in the gizmo-making workshop when things come to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives within 30 minutes and, without uttering a word, goes directly to the main control box. After staring at the control unit for what seems like about 5 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer and makes a single tap near the right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, the plant comes back to life.
The floor manager is greatly overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a request of payment for services for $5,000.
Confused and outraged, the manager dials the expert. Demanding to know why the expert has charged them such a large amount of money for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one in the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having spent years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP web site fully set up so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately 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 site?)
While many experts often make complicated situations and problems look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which services you need to set up to get specific outcomes
- Which options need to be configured to ensure that everything works as planned, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons, or tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves 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 the activities involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites.
Third-Party Services
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all content is published to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic network, content linked back to your site is automatically fed to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content will be given exposure to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of the sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with important data, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account and site details have been set up, you can use your account information to automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, traffic tracking information can be added to all of your web pages in WordPress via a Google Analytics plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site details, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your traffic system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should set up profiles with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level sources of traffic. 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 site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are various platforms you can add to your own traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website For Traffic
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 of the important points.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings menu that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section contains only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically – 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 Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by visitors 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 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 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.
The most important setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to ping various update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings 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 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
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your permalinks …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress – Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that affect traffic generation
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is safe from being targeted.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More information:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages easy for search engines like Google and Bing to index …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by improving your site’s SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it also lets you 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 online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins let you specify which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by liking your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, many themes also provide built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal 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 unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Compliant?)
To learn more about why it’s important to have a legally compliant website, see this article:
WordPress Post Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your web pages.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to review and set up your website’s categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories you have set up.
Add A Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your web content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Lose Traffic!
When online users enter the wrong web address into their web browser or click on a link pointing to a destination on your site that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your site fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do then is add web content on a regular basis to start generating traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Three
To continue reading about this topic, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively with a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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