Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically start driving traffic is add content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, 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 section, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to attract web traffic automatically when you add new content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business getting ever more competitive, it’s worth exploring any and every advantage available to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can be a tremendous advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business a flying start from the moment your website 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 an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to understand the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is additional work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with a little story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going just fine in the gizmo workshop when things grind to a sudden halt.
As no one can figure out what’s wrong, the manager decides to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without uttering a word, heads straight towards the control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for 5 minutes, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny little hammer and makes a gentle tap about one cm from the left-hand corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything begins working as before.
The floor manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Bewildered, the factory manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a ludicrous fee for less than five minutes work, he then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive traffic to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having spent years building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although the solution to many problems is often ridiculously simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve desired results
- Which settings need to be configured to ensure that things will work to plan, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
This part of the traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase is a complex process that involves your server, your website or blog, and various external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple flowchart of the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your webhosting account that affect how your site 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 positive traffic. Some of the traffic your website will attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for good and bad traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, 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 your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
External Services
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all of your content will be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will be distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external sites into your network, content with links pointing back to your site will get automatically published on search, social and aggregator sites. Your site will receive exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and source of traffic.
Some third-party sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to 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 Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmasters 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, you can use this information with web traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) 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 behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, tracking data can be integrated with WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, use the information with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic 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 bring new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can 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 and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have set up accounts and profile pages with all of the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can You can post your content to lots of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools.
(You can post your content to lots of social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse website.
There are many different sites and platforms you can add to your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once 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 Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global 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, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(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
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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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your 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 in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to notify various update services whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – 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 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your permalink URLs …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – WordPress Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is safe from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to bots and hackers.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help increase traffic by making your website more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing 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 plugins)
You can add social sharing to your website easily with WordPress plugins.
Most social share plugins allow you to choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress – Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your website, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your pages is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to configure your settings and enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure For Improved Traffic
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for 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 website is compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article about adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
Post Tags & Categories
WordPress categories and tags help to improve your site’s search engine optimization, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress post categories help to improve your site’s search optimization, which improves traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engines can read an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When visitors searching for your website enter the wrong web address or click on hyperlinks pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they are greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 Not Found page) …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then is add content on a regular basis to automatically attract new web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and requires the configuration and integration of various elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes some web professionals months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next section of the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic organically with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing methods.
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