Welcome to Part 3 of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your site into an automated traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is post content on a regular basis to automatically begin bringing traffic!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase of the traffic automation process. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We explain how to configure a WordPress site so you can ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing just by posting web content on a consistent basis to your web site.
WordPress Traffic System – Configuration
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming increasingly more competitive and businesses are looking for every advantage available to improve their performance and results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand is a tremendous competitive advantage. For business owners, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration Stage
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer.
Here’s one way to explain the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only does a whole lot more work go into building and integrating an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
Allow me to illustrate this with a little story.
Are Experts Worth The Money They Charge?
All is going fine in the widget plant when things come to a sudden stop.
No one can figure out what’s happened and so the plant manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives soon afterwards and walks directly towards the main control box. After staring at the electronic components for what seems like 2 minutes or so, the expert then produces a tiny hammer from his pocket and makes a single tap near the right-hand side of the box.
Immediately, the machinery comes back to life.
The floor manager is delighted as he thanks the expert, who then leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives a request of payment for services for $5,000.
Bewildered, the factory manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Demanding to know why they were expected to pay such a ludicrous fee for less than 5 minutes work, he promptly requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives and is placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when the equipment stopped functioning and no one in the factory floor had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for spending years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have a WP website configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social networks and dozens of other online 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?)
While the solution to many challenges is often ridiculously simple once it’s been implemented, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than just installing a website and configuring basic settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve desired outcomes
- Which options need to be configured in order to ensure that things function to plan, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this part of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. It’s not just about installing and configuring a piece of software, clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a process that involves your server, your website or blog, and a number of external sites or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your hosting account settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your site can attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, requires planning for both good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like configuring server-level spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page error redirects, etc?)
After your web server settings have been checked and configured (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various external sites and services.
External Sites & Solutions – Configuration
The basic idea of setting up external sites is that all content gets published from a central location (your site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other components of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external platforms to your traffic network, content pointing back to your website will be automatically posted to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social media accounts, even to users of the platform itself. Your content will receive added exposure online, helping your business tap into new sources of traffic.
Some of the external sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help speed up the configuration process 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 site:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with essential information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
Once your account has been set up, use this information with web traffic-related settings and notifications 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 site’s traffic performance, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, your account data can be integrated with WordPress via plugins used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account has been with Bing have been set up, use this information with traffic settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to build a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your web traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can 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 drive new visitors to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all the leading social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we will cover some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online platforms and content aggregators that can act as secondary 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 lets you add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
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 RebelMouse website.
There are many different platforms that can be incorporated into your own web traffic system. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Configuring Global WordPress Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have purposely configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text area
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section includes only one entry …
(Writing Settings – WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(WordPress lets you 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 your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence 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 play a part in someone’s choice to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Generally, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to notify all the update services you have specified in the Update Services area when a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings 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 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)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the options for configuring your SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring SEO-friendly URLs)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here: Setting Up Your WordPress Permalinks
WordPress Traffic Generation Plugin Settings – Configuration
WordPress provides users with plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including traffic generation.
Let’s look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No blog is safe from cyberattacks.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
For more details, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving improving how search engines like Google and Bing find and index your website …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive traffic by making your site more search engine friendly)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines to find and index, it allows you to configure how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to choose which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom update notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of shares), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Settings – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, some themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, easily add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes allow you to configure settings for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing features to your pages is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons and enabling the feature …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic – Additional Configuration Areas
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the things that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Legal Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, 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 start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, you need to make sure that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Does Your Site Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
WordPress Tags & Categories
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(WordPress categories help search engines classify and index your pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When considering ways to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that the post tags and categories that have been set up.
Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find your site’s content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide visitors with a visual map of how your content is structured, while XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search engine bots can interpret. Although Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
Configure Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When visitors enter the wrong URL into their web browser or click on an invalid link, they are presented with a 404 Not Found page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 page can be turned into a useful source of traffic to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your web server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic Automation System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then to start generating traffic is publish web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Checklist)
The expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals a long time to acquire.
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 explained in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles aimed at helping business owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic automatically using a WordPress website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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