Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a website into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is post web content on a consistent basis to attract new traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. We helped you understand 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 site was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to ensure that traffic will automatically start flowing whenever you publish fresh content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by business owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive and are looking for every opportunity they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can be a huge competitive advantage. An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a flying start as soon as your site is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more labor go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an amusing story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going just fine in the gizmo assembly factory when suddenly, everything comes to a halt.
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 soon afterward and, without uttering a word, immediately walks towards the control box. After staring silently at the board for 5 minutes or less, the expert then takes out a tiny little hammer from his utility belt and makes a very gentle tap about 1 cm from the right-hand corner of the unit.
Immediately, the plant comes back to life.
The floor manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
With great anger, the factory manager dials the expert. Why were they expected to pay such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to be compensated fairly for investing years building up the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to immediately assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your blog set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networks and dozens of other web 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
While experts often make complex situations and problems look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring some basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get desired results
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure processes will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, configuring some options and settings in your admin area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of a number of different components including your web server, your WP site, and a number of external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your business 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 then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
Third-Party Solutions
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all of your content will get posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your system, content linking back to your site is automatically posted to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will then receive additional exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your site to help speed up the configuration 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 before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of important data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
Once your account and site data with Google Webmasters have been set up, your details can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site data has been entered, you can add traffic monitoring code to WordPress via a simple plugin and feed data instantly to various other applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up in order to 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 accounts and bring new traffic to your site.
Make sure you have accounts and pages set up with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up and post your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are many different sites and platforms you can incorporate into your own traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external sites, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services section
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically notify your list of update services when a new post is 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 unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is 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)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow you to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalink URLs …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this tutorial: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about 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
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you cannot afford to ignore.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easy for search engines like Google and Bing to index …
(WordPress SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving your site’s SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their own networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social share plugins let you choose which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which users can unlock by liking your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can 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 give you built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Areas To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Categories & Tags
WordPress categories and tags help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits and results.
A Site Map Of Your Posts And Pages
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap contains code that only search engines can read. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins 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 – An Additional Source Of Traffic!
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to 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 Not Found error page can be set up on your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website or blog has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you have to do to generate more traffic is post web content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform the configuration stage of the traffic automation process typically takes some web developers months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation System series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read more, click here:
This tutorial is part of an tutorial series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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