Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to start attracting traffic is publish content consistently!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to start 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 has been built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration stage of the WordPress traffic automation system. We will show you how to configure a WordPress site to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing whenever you publish content on your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. Businesses are becoming ever more competitive on a global scale and are exploring any and every advantage available to improve their results and performance online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous competitive advantage. An expertly configured website gives your business a flying start from the moment your website is launched.
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 an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to explain the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does it take more work to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here is an anecdote.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All was running smoothly in the gizmo-making assembly line when things ground to a sudden stop.
No one could figure out what went wrong and so the manager decided to call in an expert.
The expert arrived shortly after being summoned and, without uttering a word, headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring silently at the board for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer from his pocket and made a gentle tap about one and half cm from the left edge of the control unit.
Immediately, the whole workshop lit up and began working once again.
The plant manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why he had charged them such a ridiculously high fee for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo plant stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly repair a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a website fully configured so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
While many experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than just installing a website and configuring some of the site settings for a client. It also involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which services you need to set up to get desired results
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that processes will work how you have envisioned, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration phase is a process that involves your web server, your WordPress site, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the configuration process)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your webhosting account that affect how you will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess file redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After your 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.
External Accounts
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content will get published to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your setup, content linking back to your website will get automatically added to search, social and aggregator accounts. Your business will then receive exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress settings to speed up the 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 Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Search Console lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of useful information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
Once your Google Search Console account and site details are set up, your details can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, traffic monitoring code can be added to all of your pages in WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account is set up, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress provides users with a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to build a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great 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 system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media and social bookmarking accounts set up before you can 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 attract new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will review some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging web platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog 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 own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different solutions that can be incorporated into your own traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure WordPress.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings
Your WordPress admin area contains a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
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 intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
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 Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content 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 to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get 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 this box unchecked enables WordPress to automatically notify various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(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 content, 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your search-friendly URLS can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, go here: Changing WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every type of functionality to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are 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 handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is completely immune from being targeted.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
Go here to learn more:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with WordPress plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social share plugins let you specify 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 shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to protect content which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout aspects of your site, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With many WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your content 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 enabled on with the click of a button)
Additional Sections To Configure
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is compliant with all regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
For a detailed article about how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your website, go here:
Tags And Post Categories
Post tags & categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better classify and index your website.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags that have been set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites discover more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Only search engine bots can interpret an XML sitemap. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When visitors enter the wrong URL or click on links pointing to destinations on your website that no longer exist, they will normally be presented with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then need to do is publish content on a regular basis to automatically begin bringing new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration stage of the traffic automation process typically takes many web professionals months to acquire.
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 WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To keep reading, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-powered website and proven web marketing strategies.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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