Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your website using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is post great content on a regular basis to automatically bring more web traffic!)
In Part Two, we focused on critical setup decisions. 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 site, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
In this section, we look at the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured to begin driving traffic automatically just by posting fresh content on a consistent basis to your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With business getting increasingly more competitive worldwide, it’s worth exploring any and every opportunity you can to improve your performance online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge advantage over other competitors. With an expertly configured website, you have a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a significant 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 take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take extra work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with an anecdote.
A Semi-True Story …
All was running smoothly in the widget plant when suddenly, production stopped.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and, without uttering a word, immediately headed towards the main control box. After staring at the wires and circuitry for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teensy-weensy hammer and made a gentle tap about 1 cm from the left-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine inside the assembly line started working as before.
The manager was greatly overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager received a request for payment of services rendered totalling $5,000.
The manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive web traffic consistently to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one in the business was able to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for investing years acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a website configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although the solution to many challenges can seem ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring some of the site settings for the client. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install for certain things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up and activated to get specific outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured to make sure processes will run as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a solution, configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many different components including your web hosting server, your site, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart of the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these areas.
Your Web Server
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). We’re talking about tweaking settings and options in your hosting account that affect how your website will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, 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 you will attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include things like implementing spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites and/or online services.
External Accounts
The idea behind adding external sites is that all content gets posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your configuration, content linked back to your website will be automatically posted to these platforms. Your content and site will then receive exposure online, helping you tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your site to help save time 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmasters)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, the account information can be used with traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, traffic tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a plugin and automatically sent to many other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account is set up, this information can be used with traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO 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 option if you are planning to grow a professional online presence for your business.
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 this into your automated web traffic system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media accounts set up in order to 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 drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose those that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications you can incorporate into your web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once 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 of the important areas.
WordPress Settings
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated 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 purposely chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services field
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 …
(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 on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website or 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 here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping your list of update services whenever 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 …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
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 blogs 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 Section)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Screen)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with 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 your site generate more traffic
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is completely immune from being targeted.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your website more search engine friendly …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s ability to rank better in search engines)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with others can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Many social plugins let you specify which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features
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 layout and design of your site, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other WordPress Settings
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad 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, you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with all government legal requirements.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
We have created a detailed article about how to quickly add legal pages to your website here:
Categories And Post Tags
Post tags & categories help search engines classify and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal benefits.
HTML Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites find your web 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 two different things. HTML site maps provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is structured, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly code that only search engine bots can understand. Although Google will index your site just from 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 Forget This!
When visitors type in the wrong web address or click on links pointing to pages on your site that no longer exist, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found page can be set up in your server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do to automatically attract more traffic is add content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time 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 article in the series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of an tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online with a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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