Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 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 website, all you have to do is publish great content regularly to automatically bring web traffic!)
In Part Two, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to get web traffic automatically as you begin to add fresh content on your site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and are researching every opportunity they can to improve their results and performance online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very beginning.
The Configuration Process Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is additional work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with an amusing story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is moving along in the gizmo-making plant when everything comes to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s gone wrong and so the manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads out immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for what seems like about 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a tiny hammer from his tool belt and makes a gentle tap about 3 inches from the top-right corner of the box.
Immediately, the assembly line starts working as before.
The plant manager is filled with joy as he thanks the expert, who leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Feeling furious, the factory manager picks up the phone and calls the expert. Why were they charged so much for less than 5 minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for investing years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP web site configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously easy once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve desired results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to make sure processes will run as planned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web hosting server, your web site, and a number of external sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned 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 bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites or online services.
Third-Party Solutions
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all of your content will be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external sites into your traffic network, content linking back to your website will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your business will benefit from increased exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some external sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to save time 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 Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account, you can use the account information with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account and site details, you can add visitor tracking information to WordPress using a plugin and send data automatically to other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account and site details with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, you can use this information to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. 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 a number of useful tools, 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 the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can integrate these with 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 drive new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add a feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings – WordPress
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section and WordPress will do the rest …
(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
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 web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get 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 most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is enabled or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services box when new posts get 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 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial on setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
WP Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are 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 web site is immune from cyber attacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to find, classify and index, it also lets you specify how to present your content to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their own friends and networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social plugins allow you to select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also give you options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog, go here:
Tags And Post Categories
WordPress post categories & tags help search engines index your web pages, which improves traffic.
(Categories help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A Site Map
A site map that displays all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google can index your site just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Page
When online users enter the wrong web address or click on a hyperlink pointing to a page on your website that no longer exists, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do to start attracting traffic is publish new content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly 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 article in our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively using a WordPress website and proven web marketing methods.
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