In Part One of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series overview, we explained that the key to turning your website into an automated web traffic generation machine is to use an “expertly configured” WordPress website.
As we also explained, an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is different than a professionally-configured WordPress site. An expertly configured WordPress website is a website or 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 enormous power, ease-of-use and built-in functionality of WordPress and its integration with other services, specifically in areas like SEO, external site syndication and reporting.
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically bring web traffic is add content on a regular basis!)
Once you have your WordPress site fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do then to automatically drive more web traffic is publish content on a regular basis.
As outlined in Part 1 of this article series, the components of this automated web traffic machine are as follows:
- Setup
- Configure
- Automate
- Optimize
In this article, we discuss the “Setup” phase of this process. The focus of this section is to help you understand the best way to get started 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 Traffic Automation System – Setup
If You Don’t Have A Website Yet
If you don’t have a web presence yet, then it’s really quite simple … get a WordPress site!
WordPress is the most powerful, flexible, cost-effective and easy-to-use content management system on the planet. We provide loads of articles, tutorials, and tips 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 content management system, see this article: Statistics And Market Share Of WordPress
After making the choice to build your site with WordPress, the next step is to choose which type of WordPress platform you will use to build your web presence on.
This step is important as there are two types of WordPress platforms you can choose from …
WordPress Hosted Or WordPress Self-Hosted?
(WordPress.org Or WordPress.com?)
WordPress offers a ”hosted” and a “self-hosted” option.
WordPress.org lets you download the full-featured WordPress CMS application for free and host a WordPress site or blog using your own domain name. This is the “self-hosted” WordPress option.
In the “hosted option”, WordPress will host your site for free at WordPress.com. There are, however, a number of limitations on what you can and can’t do with your site when it is hosted for free at WordPress.com.
If you are planning 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 site at WordPress.com. You can fully customize your web presence and avoid the limitations of the hosted option. Keep in mind that You can overcome the limitations of the free hosting platform by upgrading to a paid option, but then why not start off with a WordPress site hosted on your domain and avoid the hassles of upgrading later?
If You Already Have An Existing Site
If you already have an existing site, first, check if it has been built using WordPress.
If you need help with this step, check this article: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Runs On WordPress Software
If your existing site is a WP website, 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 blog runs on something other than the WP CMS platform, then you have some choices to make.
Take a look at the simple flowchart below …
(Use this simple flowchart to decide where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)
Basically, you have two choices:
- Replace your existing website with a WordPress site, or
- Keep your existing site and add a WordPress blog. Your WordPress blog will then be expertly configured and used to drive traffic to your main web site.
If you choose to keep your existing site and add a WordPress-powered blog, make sure to use the self-hosted version of WordPress, which requires your own domain name and web hosting, but allows you to fully configure your site’s settings and customize the design of your existing site using a suitable theme for WordPress.
To use WordPress for your main site, install the software in the “root” folder of your domain (i.e. www.mydomainname.com).
If you already have an existing 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 whatever you like).
If you already 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 covered in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Section Two
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive tutorial series aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively using a WordPress-driven website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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