Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to begin attracting more traffic is post fresh content regularly!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start 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 was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of this process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that visitors will automatically start flowing when you add fresh content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of their greatest challenges online. With business becoming ever more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth learning about every advantage that can help you improve your performance and results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous advantage over other competitors. An expertly configured website gives your business a flying start as soon as your website is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here is a simple way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing system!)
Not only is extra work required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going just fine in the gizmo plant when the machines suddenly stops.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the plant manager decides to call in an expert.
Shortly after arriving, the expert heads straight towards the main control box. After staring silently at the wires and circuitry for 3 minutes, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a very gentle tap about one and half cm from the left corner of the box.
Immediately, the whole machinery begins working as before.
The manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives a bill for $5,000.
Feeling angry, the factory manager picks up the phone and rings the expert. Why were they expected to pay so much for so little time delivering such minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a website set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be instantly 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 website?)
Although experts often make complicated situations and problems look simple, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install for specific things to occur on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that everything will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a piece of software, configuring some options and settings in your dashboard area or clicking a button … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your website, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart showing all the steps involved in 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 in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your web server specifically for handling web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like emails, page error redirects, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites.
External Accounts
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content should be published to a central location (your site) and from there, radiate outwards 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 network, content linking back to your site gets automatically syndicated to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and business will be given exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites 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, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your site:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
After setting up your account and entering site data with Google, use this information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your account and entered your site details, you can add tracking information to all of your web pages in WordPress via any of several Google Analytics plugins and send data instantly to many other applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site details are set up, this information can be used with web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users a self-hosted and a hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your social 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 sites and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many emerging web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different users.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to 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 many different solutions that can be added to your traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you need assistance exploring this area further, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure WordPress.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
The WordPress dashboard area contains a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains a powerful and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress 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 purposely configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services field
By default, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(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 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, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked enables your site to automatically ping various update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion
Although this section is 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: How To Improve Your WordPress SEO Using Permalinks
Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to improve traffic generation
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to attacks from hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web pages easily indexable …
(SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your website’s ability to rank better in search engines)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find and index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to 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 followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your pages which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
WordPress Theme Features
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) include built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features)
Other Configuration Aspects For WordPress Traffic Automation
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the things that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you engage in any form of business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site is found to comply with government legal requirements.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
If you need help understanding how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website or blog, refer to this article:
WordPress Tags & Categories
Post tags & post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and post categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
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 visitor site map that displays all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is code that only search engine bots can interpret. Although search engines like Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Another Source Of Web Traffic!
When visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a dead link, they are presented with a 404 page …
(A 404 Error Page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do to automatically attract new traffic is post fresh content on a consistent basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of different components and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take some website professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is addressed in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive tutorial series designed to help small business owners learn how to grow their business online with a WordPress-powered website and proven web 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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