Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic generation machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to bring more traffic is add content regularly!)
In Part Two, we looked at critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to drive traffic automatically when you post new content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business getting ever more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth learning about any and every opportunity you can to improve your results and performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge advantage over the competition. Having an expertly configured website gives you a significant competitive advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the differences:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this point with a joke.
Knowing Where To Tap
Things are going well in the widget-making workshop when everything comes to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives shortly afterward and, without saying a word, immediately walks towards the main control box. After staring silently at the board for about 5 minutes, the expert then takes out a little hammer and makes a single tap about 2 cm from the left-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything returns to normal.
The manager is greatly relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager receives a request of payment for services rendered for $5,000.
Furious, the factory manager dials the expert. Why did he charge them such a ridiculously high fee for less than 5 minutes work? He promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately assess and fix a very costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website fully set up so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other 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 driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many problems can seem quite easy in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring some basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure everything will function as planned, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and time-consuming. The reason why is because it’s not as easy as installing and configuring a piece of software, tweaking some options and settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web hosting server, your website, and a number of external sites …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simple diagram of the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas.
Web Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to configure a number of external sites and/or online solutions.
Integration With External Web Properties
The purpose of setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, syndicate automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external sites to your traffic network, content linking back to your website will get automatically published on your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your site will then be exposed to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these external sites and online services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress 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 Search Console
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google Search Console, this information can be used to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up your Google Analytics account, you can add tracking code to WordPress using a simple plugin and send data instantly to various other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site details have been set up, your details can be used to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to grow a professional business presence online.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful 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 these features into your traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new visitors to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up 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 drive new traffic to your site.
Set up accounts with all of the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site 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 website.
There are various solutions you can incorporate into your own web traffic system. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your server settings and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains an important and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – 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 have specifically configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the update 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)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your site to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility checkbox is ticked or not.
Typically, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services area whenever new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although the settings in this section 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 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 Screen)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the ways your site’s permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WP Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
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.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easier for search engines to index …
(WordPress Plugins For SEO – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content with their social networks can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds value to readers.
(You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you 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 plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your site, some themes also give you options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as clicking a few buttons and enabling the function …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Steps For Your WordPress Site
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
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 unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?)
We have written a detailed article about how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog here:
Categories And Post Tags
WordPress post tags and categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s post tags and categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stages.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and post categories you have set up.
Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external applications discover more of your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is mostly filled with code that only search engines can read. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from 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 results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When online users type in the wrong URL or click on links pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 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.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is publish new content consistently to start driving web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WP Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The skills and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take many web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is explained in the next article in the WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To keep reading about this topic, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help business owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively using a WordPress-powered website and proven online marketing methods.
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