Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do is publish content on a regular basis to begin attracting more traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that new visitors will automatically start flowing as you begin to publish content on a regular basis on your web site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Businesses are becoming increasingly more competitive on a global scale and are researching every advantage available to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to generate traffic on demand can be a huge competitive advantage. For WordPress users, an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very beginning.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a significant 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 its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to understand the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here is an amusing little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All was moving along in the widget assembly plant when the machines suddenly ground to a complete stop.
No one could figure out what has happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrived within in less than 30 minutes and immediately walked to the control box. After staring silently at the box for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a tiny hammer from his utility belt and made a gentle tap near the right-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, every machine sprang back to life.
The floor manager was delighted as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received a service bill for $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and called the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice arrived in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget factory stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for having spent years building up the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to avert a potentially costly crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your site fully configured so all you have to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and dozens of other 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 site?)
Although the solution to many problems can seem ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add certain functionalities to your site.
- Which 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to get certain results
- Which settings need to be configured in order to make sure processes will work as envisioned, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a button … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of a number of different parts including your web server, your site, and various third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration stage involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram showing the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a better look at these steps.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about fine-tuning settings in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess 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 Sites
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all of your content gets posted to a central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external services have been added to your traffic network, content pointing back to your site gets automatically added to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social sites, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and business will be exposed to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some third-party sites and solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with useful information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account, you can use this information with web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site data are set up, you can add traffic monitoring code to all of your web pages in WordPress via plugins and feed data automatically to various other online applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account and entering site details with Bing, the account details can be used with web traffic-related settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners a hosted (WordPress.com) and a self-hosted (WordPress.org) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your web traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need your various social media and social bookmarking 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 accounts and drive new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick the ones that will work with your system and/or content syndication tools (we discuss some of these tools in more detail in the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your website.
There are many different sites and platforms you can add to your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
Configuring WordPress For Traffic
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
WordPress – Global Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Area)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services section
By default, when WordPress is installed, this section lists only one entry …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your website or blog to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, 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.
Normally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to automatically notify your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, 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 enable WordPress to display posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s post permalinks …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
Plugins
WordPress provides users with plugins that help to add just about every type of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to increase traffic
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is safe from a cyberattack.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your website’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, classify and index, it also lets you configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with others online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Most social plugins let you choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring design and layout elements of your site, many themes also give you built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for faster indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) have built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Other Areas To Configure
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
We have written a detailed article on adding compliance pages to WordPress here:
WordPress Post Categories & Tags
Post tags & categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps you get more traffic.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post categories and tags should be reviewed and set up during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your site’s posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Don’t Forget Your WordPress 404 Page
When online users enter the wrong URL or click on links pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Not Found page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your WordPress site expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do is post fresh content regularly to start generating more web traffic.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web developers a long time to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
This article is part of an tutorial series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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