Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generation machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is add content regularly to start generating new traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed the setup phase of this process. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we look at the configuration phase of the traffic system. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured to automatically bring web traffic as you begin to add content on your site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many business owners as their greatest challenge online. With business getting ever more competitive, it’s worth learning about any and every advantage available to get better results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is What Makes The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a web presence and online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
Let’s illustrate this with a little story.
Knowing Where To Tap
All is going just fine in the gizmo-making workshop when suddenly, things comes to a complete stop.
No one can figure out what’s gone wrong and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives soon afterward and immediately walks towards the control box. After staring at the control unit for no more than 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a teensy-weensy little hammer from his shirt pocket and makes a very gentle tap near the right side of the unit.
Immediately, everything returns once more to normal.
The manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives an invoice for $5,000.
Bewildered, the factory manager rings the expert. Demanding to know why they have been charged such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice to be sent and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice notice arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is driving web traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for having invested years building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your website set up and configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other web properties would be automatically 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?)
While many experts often make complicated solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also 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 3rd-party services you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure everything works as you have imagined, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the traffic automation system is not so technically difficult, but it’s quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing a plugin, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and so much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different components including your web server, your website, and a number of external sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing 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 website installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings in your server that affect how your site will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic your site may attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like configuring server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After your server settings have been checked and configured, the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Services
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all content will be posted to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get automatically distributed to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your setup, content linked back to your website will be automatically posted to these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your content and site will benefit from exposure online, helping you tap into a whole new audience and source of traffic.
Some of the web properties and online platforms will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly website or blog)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with useful information, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google Webmasters, your details can be used to automate web traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details are set up, you can add traffic tracking code to all of your pages in WordPress using a simple plugin and feed data automatically to various other online applications and web properties.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site data with Bing Webmaster Tools have been set up, use this information to integrate and automate traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers users a self-hosted (WordPress.org) and a hosted (WordPress.com) option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and get new traffic to your site.
You should have profiles with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select the ones that will work with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your WordPress blog …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are various sites and platforms you can add to your traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress – Configuring Your Website
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, your WordPress dashboard area includes a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s main settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Screen)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings Section)
As stated in this 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 prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, only one service is available …
(Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(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 Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by visitors when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get 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.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to notify your list of update services whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – 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 blogs linked to from your articles, 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalinks)
If you need help setting up WP permalinks, see this tutorial: Configuring WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is guaranteed immunity from cyberattacks.
(WordPress Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
Go here for more information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your site more search engine friendly …
(Yoast SEO – WP Plugin)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find, crawl and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Most social share plugins allow you to specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to protect content or downloads which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring Settings – WordPress Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, many themes also include options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, easily add tracking code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes include built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other WordPress Areas For Traffic
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
To learn more about the importance of having a legally compliant website, refer to this article:
WordPress Categories And Tags
WordPress post categories & tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better index your website.
(Post categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post tags and post categories earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map To Your WordPress Site
A site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools find more of your online content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong web address or click on a dead link, they are presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Not Found page can redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once your website or blog has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is publish web content on a regular basis to start driving web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process can take some web professionals months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is covered in the next article in our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To continue reading this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress-driven website and proven online marketing strategies.
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