WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 5 (Optimization)

Welcome to Part 5 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.

So far, we have covered the following in this series:

In Part One, we provided an overview of the traffic automation process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …

(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish web content regularly to automatically begin attracting web traffic!)

In Part 2, we discuss the setup phase. We explain the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.

(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)

In Part 3, we focus on the configuration phase of the automation process. We configured all the settings that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically …

(In Part 3 you will configure all the settings that can affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically)

In Part 4, we discussed ways to automate the traffic-generation process using WordPress plugins.

(Publish content one-time and automate your content distribution to all other marketing channels!)

In this article, we discuss ways to optimize the traffic system with a number of different tools and methods.

WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Optimization Systems

In addition to getting your WordPress site expertly configured, generating consistent traffic of high quality is the outcome of a well-defined business vision, careful digital planning, and excellent systems in place.

(Consistent traffic is the product of a business vision, planning, and systems)

Let’s review briefly the systems that will help you grow and manage your new traffic.

These systems include:

• Marketing Systems – How you drive traffic to your website.
• Technical Systems – The systems and processes used to ensure that your online presence remains up and running for receiving traffic.
• Business Systems – How you manage and respond to new traffic.

(Use systems to grow, automate, optimize, and manage your traffic)

Let’s review the above systems briefly:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to drive new traffic to your website. Your marketing systems can be tested by asking questions such as:

• What channels do you plan to use to drive traffic (e.g. blogging, video marketing, etc)?
• How will you assign your budget and resources to these marketing channels?
• Who will create your content, sales funnels, and run your marketing campaigns?
• How will you measure the results of your online campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising to help generate some initial data, such as the keyword phrases people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create content targeted specifically to your audience’s needs.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems and processes ensure that your web presence remains operating efficiently for receiving traffic. There’s no point driving traffic to your site if your site is constantly experiencing problems or your pages take too long to load.

Your systems include handling areas like webhosting, site maintenance and support, installing, configuring, and updating new applications (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.

Your technical systems can be tested by asking questions such as:

• Who is looking after my webhosting?
• Who looks after my website and keeps my site, plugins, themes, etc. maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. if problems occur?

Many potential problems can be minimized if your website planning and setup and configuration phases have been completed correctly. Like all technology, however, new problems will always arise. You will need the right technical systems in place to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good business systems and processes to help you manage new traffic. This includes:

• Communication systems
• Managing human and financial resources
• Handling sales enquiries
• Order fulfillment
• Customer training/service
• etc.

If you plan to outsource key aspects of your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then you will need to put systems in place to manage all outsourcing.

WordPress Traffic Automation System – Traffic Optimization

With clear business objectives and great systems in place, all you need to focus your efforts on is implementing, optimizing and further automating your “traffic loop”.

Let’s walk through an example of how to implement, optimize, and further automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the chart below …

(Implementing an effective traffic loop)

Increase Reach And Visibility Online

Step 1 of the process is to increase visibility for your business and website.

Useful Tips

• Your expertly configured WordPress site will allow you to instantly notify and publicize your content to traffic-getting sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content online.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. pay-per-click ads) can help you generate some initial actionable data such as the keyword phrases people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create content better targeted to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage the power and reach of different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to increase more visitors using methods like LinkedIn, YouTube, forum signatures, etc.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

We’ve covered many excellent tools and methods in previous sections of this article series.

Also, contact us to learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your website or blog:

• Share your comments and posts online,
• Run contests, offer downloads or discounts for shares/likes,
• Display user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Distribute content online in various media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, slides, etc.)

Build Authority And Credibility

Getting more content published is great, but to make this activity more effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with visitors.

Publishing better quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting more views from social sharing and hence more traffic.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• Create and publish content that adds value to users and that showcases your expertise. This includes content that informs and educates readers, training content, case studies, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing expert reports that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on on the Amazon Kindle book store.

Tools, Plugins, And Strategies

We have created a complete email series designed to help you never run out of great content ideas for posting to your website:

Also, if you haven’t already, look for plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your WordPress website:

• Legal Pages
• Testimonials
• Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
• Ratings
• User Reviews
• Badges/Certificates Of Recognition

Grow Influence & Engagement

At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can achieve this by growing a list or starting a group.

With “Traffic On Demand,” all of your traffic comes from an audience of existing customers or subscribers – people who already know you and trust you. Your influence and credibility can be used to generate new traffic with every blog post you publish, forum post you add, or email you send out.

Useful Tips

• Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
• Add an email training course and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a paid or free membership site.
• Create or join an online group on Facebook.

Plugins, Tools, & Methods

There are many solutions and plugins that can help increase your online influence and improve engagement. For example:

• Autoresponders (e.g. Aweber, GetResponse, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums and Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls & Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, video galleries, etc.

Identify Needs/Problems & Provide Solutions To These

If you take advantage of incoming traffic to find out what users are searching for, you can develop new services, products, and solutions, all of which can provide you with new opportunities for generating new sources of web traffic.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• Create a free or paid online training course.
• Consider publishing a special report or PDF guide that can be sold or distributed online (e.g. sell on Amazon.
• Consider adding e-commerce to your site.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

If you plan to provide services and products online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful WordPress plugins you may want to consider adding to your website include:

• Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• Learning Management Systems (e.g. Courseware)
• Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)

Analyze Data & Feedback

The final step of the process is to collect and analyze data. Learning to gather and interpret data from existing traffic allows you to discover new traffic opportunities.

Hopefully, by now you already have installed an analytics program like Google Analytics on your website. Make sure you understand the metrics and features and can interpret the data.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Summary

Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is repeat the process over and over again, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and improve your results.

In summary:

• Start with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by solid marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (with some paid advertising to drive traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions if required to build authority and credibility, and also to improve engagement with visitors,
• Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
• Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.

Hopefully, this information has given you a blueprint that will help you automate and optimize the process of driving visitors to your web site and build a better business online.

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