Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site 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 site is the key to generating automated web traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do to automatically bring more web traffic is add web content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. 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 website, and what to do if your existing site was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing when you add fresh content to your web site.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by many website owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming increasingly more competitive worldwide and businesses are researching every advantage available to get better results online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. For business owners, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
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 an expert website developer but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only does it take more labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was running smoothly in the widget-making assembly line when suddenly, all machines came to a halt.
No one could figure out what happened and so the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert went directly to the main control box. After staring silently at the board for about 5 minutes, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer from his utility belt and made a very gentle tap near the right-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, the assembly line started working again.
The floor manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a request of payment for services rendered totalling $5,000.
The manager picked up the phone and dialled the expert, demanding to know why they were charged such a ludicrous fee for less than five minutes work. He promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the factory stand to lose when production 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 every right to demand fair compensation for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to fix a 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 networking sites and dozens of other traffic-generating online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although many experts often make complex situations and problems look simple, 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 adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which services need to be set up to achieve desired outcomes
- Which settings you need to configure to make sure processes will work exactly as you want, etc.
(Driving traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This part of the WordPress traffic automation system is not technically challenging, but it’s quite complicated. It’s not as easy as installing one or two plugins, tweaking some settings in your dashboard area or clicking a button … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many components such as your web server, your site, and various external sites and online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s take a better look at these steps.
Your Web Server
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about tweaking settings 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 checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwanted traffic like spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like spam protection and security threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email forwarding, setting up error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites and services.
External Services
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all content will get posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it will syndicate automatically to other components of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
After incorporating these external services into your network, content linked back to your site is automatically added to these platforms. Your content and website will receive additional exposure online, helping your business tap into new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site to help speed up the process 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’s settings:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmasters lets you notify Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential information, SEO tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account with Google, you can use your account 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 performance, SEO, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrers, etc.
After setting up your account, account information can be easily integrated with WordPress using any of several Google Analytics plugins used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account has been with Bing have been set up, use this information with traffic settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers 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 web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, 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 this into your web traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and bring new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media and social bookmarking accounts before you can integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and drive new visitors to your site.
You should have profiles set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work with your setup and/or content syndication tools.
(There are loads of social bookmarking sites you can post your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add an RSS feed from your site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse account.
There are various technologies and third-party applications that can be added to your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore this area further and discuss a strategy 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 site.
WordPress – Configuring Your Site
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global Settings – WordPress
By default, your WordPress admin area includes a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(WordPress Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most important and often overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As stated below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally chosen to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the update services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
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 on this page can influence web traffic. For example, your choice of displaying the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could impact someone’s choice to explore your site 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 your traffic system is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Typically, you would want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly notify all the update services you have listed whenever a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress 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 content, 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 …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings Screen)
Permalinks
Your Permalink settings allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
Here are some of the options for configuring your site’s permalink URLs …
(Configuring post permalinks)
For a detailed tutorial about setting up WordPress permalinks, go here: Setting Up WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that help to add almost every kind of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help drive more traffic to your site
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is completely safe from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to botnets and hackers.
More information:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by making your web content easier for search engines to index …
(WordPress Plugin – Yoast SEO)
Use a powerful plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your website easier for search engines to find and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Plugins
Allowing visitors to easily share your content with their own friends and networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if your site provides great content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your site using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social sharing plugins allow you to specify which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some plugins even allow you to set up protected content sections on your site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also include options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a free theme) can be configured for better traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic Configuration – Other Things To Consider
Last but not least in the web traffic system configuration process, are the elements that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle good and bad traffic but also for all the situations that can seriously affect your business as more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online, you need to ensure that your website complies with all regulations.
(Does Your Website Comply With The Law?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Categories & Tags
WordPress post categories and tags help to improve your site’s search optimization, which improves traffic.
(WordPress categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, it’s best to set up your site’s post categories and tags during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the categories and tags you have set up.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover more of your website 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 two different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is mostly code that only search engines can understand. Although search engines like Google can index your pages just using 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.
Don’t Forget Your Site’s 404 Page Not Found
When online visitors type in the wrong URL or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they will typically be greeted with a 404 error page …
(A 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several plugins for WordPress that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your site has been fully set up and expertly configured, all you need to do is post great content consistently to begin attracting new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and external web properties …
(Traffic System – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes many web professionals months 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 Section Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of articles designed to help website owners learn how to grow their business with a WordPress-powered website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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