Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically start generating new traffic is post content on a consistent basis!)
In Part 2, we focused on the setup phase of the automation process. We explained 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 existing site was built with WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress web site on your domain)
In this section, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We explain why an expertly configured site is different. You will also understand what kind of work is required to make sure that when everything is fully configured, you can attract traffic automatically as you begin to post content on a consistent basis on your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration
The ability to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. With business becoming so much more competitive, it’s worth looking into every advantage that can help you increase your own competitiveness online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous competitive advantage. Having an expertly configured WordPress site gives your business a flying start and an immediate competitive advantage online.
The Configuration Process Is What Makes The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the differences:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only is more labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with a little story.
A True Story (Kind Of) …
Everything was running smoothly in the gizmo-making workshop when things suddenly came to a stop.
No one could figure out what happened and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and headed immediately towards the control box. After staring silently at the box for what seemed like about 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer from his tool box and made a single tap near the right-hand corner of the control unit.
Immediately, the machinery sprang to life.
The floor manager was overjoyed as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the factory manager received an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
The factory manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged such an exorbitant fee for less than five minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment 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 being able to drive traffic consistently to their sites.
In the above story, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to ask to be compensated fairly for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and fix a costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a blog configured so all you had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much time and money would you save if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
While the solution to many problems can seem quite simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring basic settings. It involves knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add various functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up and activated to achieve specific outcomes
- Which options you need to configure in order to make sure processes will run as expected, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. This is because it’s not just about installing and configuring one or two plugins, configuring some settings in your dashboard area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage is a complex process that involves your server, your WP site, and a number of third-party sites and online services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Your Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web server that affect how your site will handle all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your web server 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 unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for both good and unwanted traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites or online services.
External Accounts
The idea behind setting up external sites is that all content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, be automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external sites to your setup, content linking back to your website will get automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your website will benefit from exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of the third-party sites will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site 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 before configuring your WordPress site:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account with Google, the account information can be used to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your website’s results, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account and site data, tracking data can be integrated with WordPress via a plugin used with other applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your Bing Webmaster Tools account and site data 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) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, 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 grow a professional online presence for your business.
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 web traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social accounts before you can integrate these with 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 visitors to your site.
Make sure you have pages set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just pick the ones that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add a feed from your website …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse social feed.
There are many different platforms you can incorporate into your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress settings.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings section contains an important and often overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated 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 notify the update services entered into the Update Services field
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services)
WordPress lets you 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
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 traffic. For example, your choice to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your website to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting here is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Normally, you want to encourage search engines to visit your site. Leaving this box unchecked allows your site to notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services box when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs 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 …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the ways your permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up WP permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your website, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help your site generate more traffic
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is guaranteed immunity from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to hackers and bots.
More info:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving your site’s ability to rank better in search engines)
A plugin like Yoast SEO can significantly improve your SEO. Properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines 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. Twitter, Facebook, and GooglePlus.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins to choose from.
Many social plugins allow you to select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your pages which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also include built-in options for improving SEO and site linking structure for faster indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons to enable the feature …
(Many WordPress themes have built-in social sharing features)
Additional Configuration Areas For Your WordPress Site
Last but not least in the traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With The Law?)
For a detailed article on how to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site, refer to this article:
Tags And Categories
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your website.
(Categories help improve traffic by improving your site’s search engine optimization.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your website’s post tags and post categories during the Website Planning Phase.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools find more of your online content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same thing. HTML site maps provide users with a visual map of how your content is organized, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly just a bunch of code that only search bots can read. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just from an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Configure Your 404 Error Page
When visitors type in the wrong web address into their web browser or click on an invalid link, they will normally be presented with an error page (known as a 404 page) …
(Default WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you then have to do to automatically bring more traffic is add content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes many web professionals months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is explained in the next article in the series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress website and proven online marketing methods.
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