Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part One of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to automatically start attracting web traffic is add web content consistently!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase of the blueprint. We explained 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 existing site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this article, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing when you begin to publish web content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth learning about any advantage that can help you increase your own competitiveness online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website allows their business to get off with a flying start from the moment their website is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a 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 take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Allow me to illustrate this with a little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
All was going just fine in the gizmo workshop when suddenly, things ceased working.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert immediately headed towards the main control box. After staring at the control unit for no more than 3 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny little hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about 1 cm from the bottom-right side of the box.
Immediately, everything began working once again.
The floor 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 the expert had charged them so much for less than 5 minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is driving new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one on the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately avert a serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP blog fully set up and configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube 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 site?)
Although experts often make complex situations and problems look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal 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 services need to be set up to achieve desired results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything works as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites and/or online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved in more detail.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for installation purposes (this is normally 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 web traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up 404 error page 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 (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and/or online services.
Integration With External Solutions
The idea behind choosing external sites is that all of your content should be published to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, get automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically posted to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of these third-party sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google, you can use this information with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
After setting up your up your account and entered your site details, you can add visitor tracking code to WordPress via a simple plugin and feed data instantly to other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site details with Bing have been set up, you can use this information with 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 explained in Part Two, WordPress offers the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated web traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media accounts in order to 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 get new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profile pages with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(You can post your content to loads of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you 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 website.
There are many different technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your site.
Configuring Your WordPress Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
Your WordPress administration area contains 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 influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely configured your site 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 text area
By default, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of all the update services you want to notify as soon as you publish a new post to this section and WordPress will do the rest …
(You can 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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The main setting in this section as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to notify the update services list when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
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 blogs 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
Here are some of the options for configuring your post permalinks …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Configuring Settings – Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your site is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other WordPress Features
Last but not least in the configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with all government legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Tags & Post Categories
Tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s categories and tags during the Website Planning Phase.
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 Site Map To Your WordPress Site
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 applications find your website content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that 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), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Error Page – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When online visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a dead hyperlink, they are presented with an error page …
(Default WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do is post new content on a consistent basis to automatically start attracting web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web developers months 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 addressed in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business and drive traffic organically using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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