WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 5 (Optimization)

Welcome to Part 5 of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to grow your business online automatically using WordPress.

So far, we have covered the following in this series:

In Part One of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …

(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish fresh content consistently to generate more traffic!)

In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to get started 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 has been built with WordPress.

(In Part two we show you where to set up a WordPress site on your domain)

In Part Three, we look at the configuration phase. We explained how to configure all the settings (hosting, internal and external) that affect your website’s ability to generate traffic automatically …

(In Part Three you learn how to configure all the settings (hosting, WordPress and external) that affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)

In Part Four, we explained how to set up various WordPress plugins that can drive new traffic automatically to your website or blog.

(Publish once to WordPress and automate the distribution of your content to all other services!)

In Part Five of the WordPress web traffic automation blueprint article series, we discuss ways to optimize traffic to your website using various tools and methods.

WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Traffic Optimization Systems

In addition to having an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, generating consistent traffic of high quality comes from having a well-defined business vision, great digital planning, and good systems in place.

(Automated traffic is the result of having a clear business vision, planning, and great systems)

Let’s review briefly the systems that will help you grow and manage your traffic.

These systems include:

• Marketing Systems – How you drive traffic to your website.
• Technical Systems – The systems used to ensure that your online presence remains up and running for receiving traffic.
• Business Systems – How you manage and respond to traffic.

(Systems help you grow and manage your traffic)

Let’s briefly review the importance of the above systems:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and strategies used to drive new traffic to your website. Your online marketing systems can be tested by asking questions such as:

• What channels do you plan to use to drive traffic (e.g. blogging, PPC advertising, video marketing, etc)?
• How will you apportion your budget and resources to these channels?
• Who will create your content, sales funnels, and marketing campaigns?
• How will you track conversions and measure the ROI of your online campaigns?

During the setup and configuration phase, you should have installed an analytics program (e.g. Google Analytics). If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider investing in some paid advertising to help you generate some data, such as the keywords people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create content targeted specifically to your audience.

Technical Systems

Your technical systems and processes ensure that your digital presence remains up and running for receiving new traffic. There’s no point driving traffic to your website if your site is down or your pages take a long time to load.

Your systems need to adequately handle technical areas like webhosting, site maintenance and support, installing and updating new software (e.g. plugins), customization, integration, troubleshooting, etc.

Your technical systems can be tested by asking questions such as:

• Who will look after my server?
• Who is looking after my website and keeping my site, plugins, themes, etc. maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. should any problems occur?

Many potential problems can be minimized if your website planning and setup and configuration phases have been done correctly. Like all technology, however, you can expect problems. You will need the right technical systems in place to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good business systems and processes to help you manage and respond to the influx of traffic. These include:

• Communication systems
• Resources management – human, financial
• Handling leads and sales enquiries
• Order fulfillment
• Customer service/training
• etc.

If you plan to outsource areas of your digital marketing and technical support, then you will need to put good systems in place for managing all outsourcing.

WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Traffic Loops

If your business objectives are clear and your systems and processes are in place, all you need to focus your efforts on is developing and optimizing a “traffic loop”.

Let’s walk through an example of implementing, optimizing, and automating a traffic loop. Take a look at the flowchart below …

(Implementing, automating and optimizing a traffic loop)

Increase Reach & Visibility Online

The first step of the process is to expose your business to as many members of your target audience as your resources will allow.

Tips

• An expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically syndicate your content to places like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content online.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising (e.g. Facebook ads) can help you generate actionable data, which you can use to create web content targeted specifically to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage the power and reach of different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to increase more traffic using methods like paid ads, solo ads, cross promotions, etc.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

We’ve covered a number of useful tools and strategies in previous sections of this article series.

Also, learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your website:

• Share your posts online,
• Run contests, offer downloads or discounts for likes/shares,
• Add user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Distribute content online in various media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, slides, etc.)

Build Authority & Credibility

Getting more content published is good, but for this activity to be really effective, your content also needs to be building authority and credibility with your audience.

Publishing better quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting it shared around and hence more traffic.

Traffic Tips

• Create and publish content that adds value to users and that showcases your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing an educational guide that can be sold or distributed online (e.g. sell on on the Amazon Kindle book store.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

If you need endless content ideas for your website or blog, we recommend subscribing to our email training series here:

Also, if you haven’t already, learn more about plugins that let you easily add the following to your WordPress website or blog:

• Legal Pages
• Testimonials
• Customer Support (e.g. Helpdesk, Live Chat, etc.)
• Ratings
• User Reviews
• Badges/Certificates Of Recognition

Grow Influence And Engagement

At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can do this by growing a list or starting a group.

With “Traffic On Tap,” most of your traffic comes from an audience of customers or subscribers – people who already like you and trust you. Your influence and reputation can be used to generate new traffic with every post you publish or broadcast you send out.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
• Add an autoresponder training course and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a free or paid membership site, online forum, or social community.
• Start or join an online group on Facebook/LinkedIn.

Plugins, Tools, & Strategies

Many solutions and plugins are available that can help grow your influence and improve user engagement. For example:

• List-Building Tools (e.g. Aweber, GetResponse, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums & Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls & Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, video galleries, etc.

Identify Needs And Provide Solutions

By taking advantage of incoming traffic to find out what problems your visitors are trying to solve, you should have no problem developing new services, products, and solutions, all of which provide new opportunities to generate additional traffic.

Useful Tips & Ideas

• Create an e-learning program.
• Publish a PDF guide that can be sold or distributed online (e.g. sell on on the Amazon Kindle book store.
• Consider adding an e-commerce store to your business.

Tools & Methods

If you plan to provide products and services online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful plugins you may want to consider adding to your site include:

• Membership Site plugins (e.g. Wishlist Member, S2 Member, etc.)
• e-Courses (e.g. Courseware)
• Event Registrations (e.g. EventEspresso)

Analyze Data & Feedback

The final step of the process is to collect and analyze data. By learning to interpret data gathered from existing traffic, you can discover new traffic opportunities.

You should have already installed an analytics program like Google Analytics on your site. Make sure you also learn how to interpret the data.

WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Summary

Once you implement the above strategies, all you have to do is repeat the cycle, fine-tuning and refining your methods as you go to grow your traffic and get better your results.

In summary:

• Begin with an expertly configured WordPress site backed by solid marketing, technical and business systems,
• Implement a content marketing strategy (consider adding some paid advertising to drive initial traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other solutions if necessary to help build authority and credibility, and also to improve engagement with users,
• Promote any new solutions, products or services using your existing channels and strategies to generate additional streams of traffic,
• Analyse your data and your results, automate your processes wherever possible, and begin the cycle again.

Hopefully, this post has given you a blueprint that will help you automate and optimize the process of driving traffic to your web site and expand your business online.

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