Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new visitors automatically to your website using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress web site, all you have to do is post great content regularly to automatically generate more traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed 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 website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. You will understand what makes an expertly configured site different from a professionally configured website. You will also learn how much work needs to be done to make sure that when all is set up and configured, you can automatically begin bringing traffic when you add web content to your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition becoming increasingly more difficult businesses are looking for any and every advantage they believe will help them increase their competitiveness online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives you an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer you.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional 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 system!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is going according to schedule in the gizmo assembly workshop when suddenly, all equipment stops.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and walks immediately to the control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for about 3 minutes or less, the expert then produces a tiny little hammer and makes a single tap near the right-hand side of the box.
Immediately, everything springs to life once again.
The manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a request for payment of $5,000.
Bordering on outrage, the manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped working and no one on the business had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for having invested years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress site fully set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your site?)
While the solution to many problems is often ridiculously easy once implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve certain outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure everything will function to plan, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a couple of buttons … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different parts including your web hosting server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s take a better look at these steps.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step is to configure a number of third-party sites and services.
External Sites And Accounts – Configuration
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content is published from a central location (your site) and from there, it gets automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external platforms into your traffic system, content pointing back to your site is automatically added to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will benefit from additional exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress 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:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential data, SEO tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account, you can use this information to integrate and automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, traffic monitoring code can be added to WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins and and fed to other useful applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account with Bing Webmaster Tools are set up, your details can be used with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your traffic system in Part Four of this series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up in order to 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your page.
There are various platforms that can be incorporated into your 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 server settings and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website
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 key areas.
WordPress Settings
The WordPress admin area contains a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Screen)
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 settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list containing all of the update services you want notified to this section …
(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
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 have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content 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.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Generally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically notify the update services list when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, do not check this box …
(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 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WP permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve 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 WordPress site for handling 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, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your website.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to bots and hackers.
Go here for more details:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it also lets you specify how to display your content to 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 more traffic to your site, especially if you provide great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
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 custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also include built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and unwanted 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), you need to ensure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Tags And Categories
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be set up 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.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover more of your website content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Only search engines can read XML sitemaps. Although search engines like Google can index your site 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.
Your Site’s 404 Error Page
When online visitors enter the wrong web address or click on an invalid link, they will normally be greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do to automatically start generating new web traffic is add fresh content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process typically takes many website developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. 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 tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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