Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive new traffic automatically to your site 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 website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to attract more traffic is add content regularly!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. 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 existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will explain why an expertly configured site is different. You will also discover just what kind of work is required to ensure that when everything is fully configured, you can automatically bring traffic when you publish content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive and are looking for every opportunity they can to get better results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For business owners, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Process
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website 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 describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps required 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 an amusing story.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things are running smoothly in the gizmo assembly line when everything grinds to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
Soon afterward, the expert arrives and, without saying a word, heads out directly to the main control box. After staring at the electronic components for no more than 5 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy hammer from his tool box and makes a gentle tap about one inch from the right side of the unit.
Immediately, everything starts working once more.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services rendered for $5,000.
Bewildered and angry, the factory manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Why were they charged so much for less than 5 minutes work? He then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the plant stand to lose when production stopped functioning and no one on the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other online properties would be automatically 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 attracting new visitors to your website?)
While the solution to many challenges is often ridiculously simple once implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up to get specific results
- Which options need to be configured in order to make sure everything functions as envisioned, etc.
(Driving new 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. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring one or two plugins, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration stage is a process that involves your web server, your web site, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website 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 simplified diagram showing all the steps involved in the configuration process)
Let’s take a better look at these steps.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your web hosting account that affect how your site will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the web traffic you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like integrating server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites and services.
External Accounts
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content should be posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, be automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external platforms have been added to your setup, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically fed to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and website will be given added exposure to a new audience and source of traffic.
Some of the third-party sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to help speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your site:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, this information can be used with traffic settings and notifications 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 performance, SEO, marketing activities, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, you can add visitor tracking code to WordPress using plugins and feed data automatically to many other online applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site data have been set up, this information can be used to automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your web traffic generation system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking 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 and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that lets you add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your account.
There are many different sites and platforms that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party services, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to set up your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – 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 specifically chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is listed …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 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, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website 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 traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly notify all the update services you have listed when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Section)
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 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings enable your site to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings Screen)
The examples below show some of the ways site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, go here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more visitors to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for dealing with 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 website security.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web content more indexable …
(Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can significantly improve your SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social features to your site with WordPress plugins)
There are loads of social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social plugins let you select which sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which users can unlock by liking your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design 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 analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other Sections Of WordPress For Increased Traffic Results
Last but not least in the web traffic configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
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 as more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you do business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website complies with government laws and regulations.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website, see this article:
Post Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your pages.
(Post categories help search engines better organize and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stages.
When configuring your site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the tags and categories that have been set up.
A Site Map Of Your Pages and Posts
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web 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 results in increased traffic.
Configure Your Site’s 404 Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on links pointing to pages on your website that no longer exist, they are presented with an error page …
(A 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do is publish content consistently to drive more web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform this stage of the traffic automation process typically takes some website professionals a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is covered in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively using a WordPress-driven website or blog and proven online marketing methods.
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