Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your website using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to automatically start generating new traffic is publish content on a regular basis!)
In Part 2, we discussed critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to get started 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 website was built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this section of the series, we discuss the configuration phase of the WordPress traffic automation system. You will understand what makes an expertly configured WordPress site different. You will also discover what kind of work is required to make sure that when all is set up and configured, you will attract new traffic automatically just by posting new content regularly on your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase
Being able to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive worldwide and are looking for any opportunity they can to improve their results online.
The ability to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage. An expertly configured website gives you a flying start and a significant competitive advantage online.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here is a simple way to understand the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this point here is a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was moving along in the widget assembly factory when all of a sudden, everything ground to a stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the box for less than 5 minutes or so, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny little hammer and made a very gentle tap about three cm from the left-hand corner of the box.
Immediately, everything returned once again to normal.
The manager was grateful and relieved as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received a request of payment for services rendered totalling $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and rang the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a large amount of money for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived and was placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is driving new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the widget plant stand to lose when the machines stopped functioning and no one in the business had the expertise to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have the right to demand fair compensation for spending years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately repair a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a web site fully configured so all you had to do is publish content to it and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
While many experts often make complex solutions look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party accounts need to be set up and activated to get specific results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure in order to make sure processes will work as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a couple of buttons, or configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of various different parts including your web hosting server, your website, and various external sites or online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If we create a simple flowchart showing the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart of the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps.
Your Web Server – Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes (this should have been done during the Setup phase). We’re talking about configuring settings and options in your server that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your web hosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your business can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This stage of the configuration process, therefore, is about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring domain and email redirections, setting up htaccess and 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure various external sites and services.
External Sites & Services – Configuration
The concept behind setting up external sites is that all of your content gets published from one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it gets distributed automatically to other parts of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic network, content with links pointing back to your website is automatically syndicated to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content and site will be given additional exposure to a new audience and new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your 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 Search Console)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential information, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, use this information with web traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your account and site data has been entered, you can add traffic tracking information to WordPress via plugins and send data instantly to many other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. After setting up your account and entering site data, this information can be used to automate web 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 Two, WordPress offers both the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you are planning to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated traffic generation system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to set up your various 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 and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are many social sites you can set up and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just select those that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail when we discuss the Automation phase).
(There are loads of social sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your website.
There are many different solutions you can incorporate into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search indexing, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically ping the list of services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically …
(You can notify dozens of update services automatically!)
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 visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an 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 readers and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting in this section as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services section when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
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 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 …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings allow your site to publish posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring post permalinks)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring Settings – Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to attract more visitors to your site
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is safe from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and bots.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your SEO. Properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which users can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WP 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 design and layout elements of your site, some themes also include options for improving SEO and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your pages is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic System – Additional Configuration
Last but not least in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
To learn more about the importance of having a compliant website, see this article:
Tags & Categories
Post tags & post categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your pages, which improves traffic.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post categories and tags earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your web site to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover more of your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, whereas an XML sitemap is mostly code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just from 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 – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When visitors searching online for your site enter the wrong web address or click on a dead hyperlink, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 Not Found error page can be set up in your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then to automatically start generating traffic is post fresh content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various elements and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many website professionals months to acquire.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is covered in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Blueprint series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online cost-effectively and drive traffic automatically with a WordPress-powered website and proven online marketing methods.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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