Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is post content on a regular basis to automatically start generating more traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site so you can automatically drive visitors just by regularly publishing fresh content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Also, the business landscape is becoming so much more competitive and businesses are researching every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured WordPress site, you have an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take more labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this here is a joke.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Things were moving along in the gizmo-making workshop when everything came to a sudden stop.
As no one could figure out what happened, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the board for 2 minutes or less, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer from his shirt pocket and made a gentle tap about 1 inch from the left side of the unit.
Immediately, the assembly line started working once more.
The manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services rendered for $5,000.
The manager called the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged such an exorbitant fee for less than 5 minutes work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your website or blog configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be instantly 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?)
While the solution to many problems often seems ridiculously easy in hindsight, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs need to be installed for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up to achieve desired results
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that things work as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as easy as installing a plugin, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of a number of different parts including your web server, your web site, and a number of external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we create a simplified diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings in your server that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your web-hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like implementing spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites.
External Sites
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content will get published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically fed to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some external sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help 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 WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmasters – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your Google Webmasters account and site details have been set up, you can use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data have been set up, visitor tracking information can be added to all of your web pages in WordPress using a plugin and and fed to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, you can use your information with web traffic 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 version if you are planning to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can configure these as part of 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 attract new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. 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 an RSS feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be added to your traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
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 intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, only one service is available …
(WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 Settings
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 traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from summaries, 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.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to notify all the update services you have listed whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global 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 blogs 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)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
WP Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with 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, securing your web sites is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to hackers and bots.
For more information, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO 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. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to protect content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress – Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a free theme) allow you to configure settings and options for improved traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Sections
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a compliant website, refer to this article:
Post Categories & Tags
Post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your web pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post categories and tags should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find 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 two different things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a an understandable representation of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly just a bunch of code that only search bots can interpret. Although Google will index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on hyperlinks pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they will normally be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are several WordPress plugins that let you easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do to automatically begin attracting new web traffic is publish 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 web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform the configuration process can take many website developers 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 article in our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of an article series aimed at helping website owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing strategies.
Subscribe Using The Form Below And Get Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published!
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
***