Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to drive traffic automatically to your site using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we described 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 website, all you have to do to bring more web traffic is post fresh content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase of this process. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that new visitors will automatically start flowing whenever you post fresh content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic 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 becoming so much more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth exploring every advantage that can help you get better results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can be a huge competitive advantage. Having an expertly configured website gives your business an immediate advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Way Your Site Is Configured
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the main difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is additional work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
Everything is moving along in the gizmo factory when things suddenly comes to a stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walks immediately to the control box. After staring silently at the box for less than 3 minutes or so, the expert then produces a little hammer from his tool box and makes a very gentle tap near the right-hand corner of the unit.
Immediately, the machinery springs to life again.
The plant manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services for $5,000.
With a sense of outrage, the manager calls the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving traffic to their sites.
How much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in 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 spending years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WP blog set up and configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be automatically 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 many experts often make complex solutions look simple, 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 a few settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get certain functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure things will work to plan, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as simple as installing one or two plugins, tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different components including your server, your website, and a number of external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in more detail.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your webhosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic your site may attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwelcome traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include looking at things like implementing 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 emails, page error redirects, etc?)
Once your server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and/or online solutions.
3rd-Party Solutions
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all of your content will get posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will be automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external services into your system, content linked back to your website gets automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social sites, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content will benefit from additional exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some of the third-party sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your site to help 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 settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential information, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site details with Google, you can use the details to integrate and automate web traffic-related 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, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, visitor tracking information can be integrated with WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site data, you can use your information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) 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 some great 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 automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social accounts 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 get new traffic to your site.
You should set up accounts and profile pages with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary sources of traffic. 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 your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute social content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are many different platforms that can be added to your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these further, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
The WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings menu)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described 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 intentionally 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 section
By default, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 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, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to instantly notify all the update services you have listed in the Update Services section whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although discussion settings are 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 Screen)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings enable your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
If you need help setting up permalinks in WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your WordPress site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is guaranteed immunity from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and bots.
Go here for more details:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(Yoast SEO – WP SEO Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, classify and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with their networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social sharing features to your site easily with WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins.
Many social plugins allow you to specify 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 shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Theme Settings
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, some themes also provide built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons to your pages is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System Configuration – Other Steps
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, 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 as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your website complies with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
WordPress Tags & Categories
WordPress categories & tags help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your 404 Page
When visitors searching for your site type in the wrong web address into their web browser or click on an invalid link, they will normally be presented with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 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 Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then to bring more web traffic is publish web content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and knowledge involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic organically using a WordPress website and proven online marketing methods.
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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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