WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 5 (Optimization)

Welcome to Part 5 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using WordPress.

So far, here is what we have covered in this series:

In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …

(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to generate traffic is post web content regularly!)

In Part Two, we focus on the setup phase. We help you understand 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 website is built using WordPress.

(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)

In Part 3, we focus on important configuration decisions. We configured hosting settings, internal settings, and external settings that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically …

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

In Part Four, we showed you how to set up various plugins that can help bring web traffic automatically to your website.

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

In this section of the WordPress web traffic automation blueprint article series, we discuss ways to optimize traffic generation using a number of tools and methods.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Systems

In addition to getting your WordPress website or blog expertly configured, generating quality traffic consistently is achieved by having a clear business vision, sound digital planning, and excellent systems and process in place.

(Optimized traffic is the result of a business vision, planning, and great systems)

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

These include:

• Marketing Systems – How you drive traffic to your business.
• Technical Systems – The systems used to keep your online presence operating efficiently for receiving traffic.
• Business Systems – How you manage and respond to new traffic.

(Systems help you grow, automate, and manage your traffic)

Let’s review the importance of the above systems briefly:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to create traffic for your website. You can test your marketing systems by asking questions such as:

• What is your online marketing strategy?
• What resources and portion of your budget will you apportion to these marketing channels?
• Who will create your content and marketing campaigns?
• How will you test and measure the ROI of your marketing campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you would 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 actionable data, such as the keywords people are searching online to find your website, which you can use to create content better targeted to your audience’s needs.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems keep your online presence up and running for receiving new traffic. There’s no point sending traffic to your website if your site is constantly experiencing problems or your pages take too long to load.

Your systems need to adequately handle areas like webhosting, website maintenance and support, installing and updating new applications (e.g. plugins), integration, customization, troubleshooting, etc.

You can test your technical systems by questions such as:

• Who looks after my server?
• Who will look after my website and keep my site, plugins, themes, etc. maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should issues arise?

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

Business Systems

Your business systems and processes help you manage traffic. This includes:

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

If you intend to outsource your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then make sure you also implement excellent systems to manage all outsourcing processes.

WordPress Traffic System – Optimizing Traffic Generation

With clear business objectives and great systems in place, all you need to focus on is how to grow your “traffic loop”.

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

(Implement, optimize, and automate your traffic loop)

Increase Reach And Visibility Online

The first step of the process is to get your business exposed to as many potential users as you can.

Useful Tips

• An expertly configured WordPress site will allow you to automatically distribute your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content through your expertly configured WordPress site.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Google AdWords) can help generate data, which you can use to create web content better targeted to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to attract more website traffic using methods like SEO, social media, updates, etc.

Plugins, Tools, & Methods

See previous sections of this tutorial series for many excellent tools, plugins, and methods we’ve already covered to help you reach more potential users.

Also, contact us to learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your site:

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

Build Authority And Credibility

Getting more content out there is good, but for this activity to be really effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with users.

Publishing better quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting it shared on other sites and viewed by more people and hence more visitors.

Tips

• Focus on content that adds value to your audience and that showcases your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing educational guides or special reports that you can sell or distribute online (e.g. sell on on the Amazon Kindle store.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

We have created an entire course on content creation that you can plug into at no cost here:

Also, if you haven’t already, see other posts and tutorials on this site to learn more about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your WordPress website or blog:

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

Grow Influence & Engagement

At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on tap.” You can do this by building a list or starting an online community.

With “Traffic On Tap,” most of your traffic comes from an audience of existing customers or subscribers – people who already know you and trust you. Your influence and reputation can be used to generate traffic with a single blog post or email broadcast.

Tips

• Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
• Add an email newsletter and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a free, paid, or ‘freemium’ membership site.
• Create or join an online group on Facebook/LinkedIn.

Tools, Plugins, And Methods

There are many solutions and WordPress plugins that are easy to implement and can help grow your online influence and improve engagement. For example:

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

Identify Needs/Problems And Provide Solutions To These

By taking advantage of incoming traffic to find out what your visitors need, you can have an endless funnel of ideas for developing new products, services, and solutions, all of which can provide you with new opportunities for generating additional traffic.

Useful Tips

• Create an online training program.
• Publish educational guides or special reports that can be sold or distributed online (e.g. sell on Clickbank.
• Consider adding e-commerce to your site.

Tools, Plugins, & Strategies

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

• Membership Sites (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• e-Courses (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 interpret data gathered from existing traffic lets you discover new ways to generate content that can bring you additional traffic.

You should already have installed an analytics program like Google Analytics on your website. Make sure you also learn how to interpret the data.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Summary

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

In summary:

• Start with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by good marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (consider also investing in some paid advertising to drive initial traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions if needed to build authority, trust, and credibility, and also to increase engagement with users,
• 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, now you have a blueprint that will help you drive more visitors automatically to your WordPress website and build a better business online.

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