In Part One of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, we explained that the key to turning a website into an automated web traffic generation machine is to use an “expertly configured” WordPress website.
As we also explained, an expertly configured WordPress site is different than a professionally-configured WordPress website or blog. An expertly configured WordPress blog is a blog that is not only built with the WordPress CMS platform, but has also been expertly set up and configured (either by yourself or professionally) to take advantage of the tremendous power, ease-of-use and functionality of WordPress and the way it can be integrated with various services, specifically in areas like search engine optimization, 3rd-party site syndication and analytics.
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do to drive traffic is publish great content regularly!)
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is publish content regularly to automatically bring more traffic.
As outlined in Part One of this article series, the components of the automated website traffic system are as follows:
- Setup
- Configure
- Automate
- Optimize
In this article, we discuss the “Setup” phase of the automation process. The focus of this section is to help you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, or if you already have an existing site that may or may not have been built using WordPress.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Setup Phase
If You Haven’t Got A Web Presence
If you haven’t got a web presence yet, it’s quite simple … build your web presence with WordPress!
WordPress is the most powerful, flexible, cost-effective and easy-to-use content management system on the planet. We provide many articles, tips, and tutorials on this site about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to grow your business online.
For example, to see just how popular WordPress is as a web publishing platform, see this article: WordPress Usage Statistics
After making the choice to build your website with WordPress, the next step is to decide which type of WordPress platform you will use to run your web presence on.
This step is important as there are 2 types of WordPress platforms you can choose from …
WordPress.org Or WordPress.com?
(WordPress.org Or WordPress.com?)
WordPress offers both a ”hosted” and a “self-hosted” option.
WordPress.org lets you download the full-featured WordPress CMS application at no cost and host a WordPress site or blog under your own domain name. This is the “self-hosted” WordPress option.
In the “hosted option”, WordPress hosts your blog for free at WordPress.com. There are, however, some limitations on what you can and can’t do with your site when it is hosted for free at WordPress.com.
If you plan to build a professional business presence online and you want to set up the traffic system described here, then you should choose the “self-hosted” WordPress version. The benefits of choosing the “self-hosted” option (WordPress.org) far outweigh those of hosting a free blog at WordPress.com. You get to have full control over your web presence and avoid the limitations of the hosted option. Keep in mind that you can overcome the limitations of the free hosting options by upgrading to a paid option, but then why not start off with a WordPress site hosted on your own domain and avoid the hassles of upgrading later?
If You Have An Existing Site
If you already have an existing site, first check to see if the website has been built using WordPress.
If you need help with this step, check this article: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools
If your existing website is a WP web site, move to the next step, and make sure that your site’s internal settings have been properly configured. We cover this step in more detail in another tutorial.
If your existing website was not built using WordPress, then you have some choices to make.
Take a look at the simple flowchart below. It will help you choose how to set up WordPress on your domain …
(Use the above diagram to help you choose how to set up WordPress on your domain)
Basically, you have two choices:
- Replace your existing web site with a WordPress site, or
- Keep your existing site and add a WordPress blog. This blog will then be used to drive traffic to your main web site.
If you choose to keep your existing site and add a WordPress blog, make sure to use the self-hosted version of WordPress, which requires a domain name and web hosting, but allows you to fully configure your blog’s settings and customize the look and feel of your existing site using a suitable theme for WordPress.
To use WordPress as your main website, install it in the “root” folder of your domain name (e.g. http://www.mydomainname.com).
If you have a website, then you will want to install WordPress in a subdirectory of your domain, e.g. www.mydomainname.com/blog (you can name your subfolder anything you want).
If you have an existing website that you don’t want to delete or replace with a WordPress site, the other option you have is to set up your WordPress site or blog on an entirely different domain.
This way:
- mydomainname.com – goes to your existing website
- myotherdomain.com – goes to your WordPress blog
Once you have set up your WordPress site, the next step is to configure it. This step is explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part Two
To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing strategies that are easy to implement.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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