WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint – Part 5 (Optimization)

Welcome to Part Five of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we explain how to grow your business online automatically using the WordPress CMS.

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

In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …

(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do is publish fresh content on a regular basis to attract new traffic!)

In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase of the blueprint. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing website was built with WordPress.

(In Part two we show you how to set up WordPress on your domain)

In Part 3, we discuss important configuration decisions. We configured webhosting settings, WordPress settings, and external settings that affect your site’s ability to generate traffic automatically …

(In Part 3 you learn how to configure all the settings that can affect your website’s traffic-getting ability)

In Part Four, we explained how to set up various plugins that can bring visitors automatically to your site.

(Publish content one-time and automate your content distribution to all other services!)

In this article, we look at ways to optimize your traffic with different tools and strategies.

WordPress Web Traffic System – Systems

In addition to getting your WordPress site expertly configured, the key to generating consistent traffic of high quality is having a well-defined business vision, sound digital planning, and excellent systems in place.

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

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

These include:

• Marketing Systems – How you drive traffic to your business.
• Technical Systems – How you ensure that your digital presence remains operating efficiently for receiving traffic.
• Business Systems – The systems used to manage and respond to new traffic.

(Systems help you grow, automate, and manage your traffic)

Let’s review the above systems briefly:

Marketing Systems

Your marketing systems consist of the processes and methods used to drive new traffic to your business. You can test your marketing systems by asking questions such as:

• What channels do you plan to use to generate traffic (e.g. blogging, video marketing, etc)?
• What resources and portion of your marketing budget will you apply to these channels?
• How will you create and optimize your content and marketing campaigns?
• How will you test and measure the cost-effectiveness of your online marketing 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 results. If you’re tracking your marketing campaigns correctly, this should yield some actionable data, such as the keyword phrases 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 ensure that your online presence remains optimized for receiving new traffic. There’s no point driving traffic to your site if your site is constantly experiencing problems or your pages are taking a very long time to load.

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

You can test your technical systems by questions such as:

• Who will look after my webhosting?
• Who looks after my website and keeps my site maintained and up-to-date?
• Who will fix errors, troubleshoot problems, provide technical support and advice, etc. if you experience difficulties?

Many potential issues can be minimized if your website planning and setup and configuration phases have been completed correctly. As with all technology, however, you should expect new problems. Your technical systems need to be robust enough to handle these.

Business Systems

You need good operational systems and processes in place to help you manage and respond to new traffic. This includes:

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

If you plan to outsource your digital marketing and technical maintenance, then you will need systems in place to manage all outsourcing processes.

WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Traffic Optimization Tools And Strategies

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

Let’s go through an example of how to implement, optimize, and automate a traffic loop. Take a look at the chart below …

(Implement, automate, and optimize your traffic loop)

Increase Reach & Visibility Online

Step 1 of the process is to expose your business to as many potential users as your time and resources will allow.

Traffic Ideas

• Your expertly configured WordPress site allows you to automatically distribute your content to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. The easiest way to increase your reach and visibility online, therefore, is to simply publish more content through your expertly configured WordPress site.
• As mentioned earlier, investing in some paid advertising can help generate actionable and intelligent data such as the keywords people are searching online to find your site, which you can use to create web content targeted specifically to your audience.
• Repurpose your content to leverage different media formats.
• Continue learning about ways to get visitors using methods like Pinterest, social media, Reddit, etc.

Tools And Strategies

See previous sections of this article series for many useful tools, plugins, and strategies we’ve already covered to help you reach more potential users.

Also, if you haven’t already, ask us about plugins that allow you to easily add the following to your WordPress site:

• Share your comments and posts online,
• Run contests, offer discounts or downloads for likes/shares,
• Display user generated content, feeds, etc.
• Publish and distribute content online in different media formats (e.g. videos, PDF guides, infographics, etc.)

Build Authority And Credibility

Getting more of your content out there is a great first step, but to make this activity more effective, your content needs to build authority and credibility with visitors.

Publishing better quality content not only helps to establish your credibility, it also improves your chances of getting more shares and views and hence more visitors.

Tips

• Create and publish content that will add value to potential users and showcase your expertise. This includes content that educates and informs readers, training content, user reviews, adding testimonials, etc.
• Consider publishing a “how to” guide that can be sold or distributed online.

Tools, Plugins, & Strategies

If you need endless content ideas for your website or blog, then subscribe to our email training series on growing your business online with content marketing here:

Also, if you haven’t already, see other posts and tutorials on this site to 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 Trust

Grow Influence & Engagement

At some point, you may want to consider developing “traffic on demand.” You can achieve this by building a list or starting an online community.

With “Traffic On Demand,” all of your traffic will come from customers or subscribers – people who already like you and trust you. Your influence and credibility can be used to generate traffic with every blog post you publish or broadcast you send out.

Useful Tips And Ideas

• Encourage commenting and discussions on your site.
• Add an email training course and encourage people to subscribe.
• Add a free, paid, or ‘freemium’ membership site.
• Start or join an online group on LinkedIn/Facebook.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

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

• Autoresponders (e.g. Aweber, MailChimp, etc.)
• Contact Forms, Live Chat
• Forums and Social Communities (e.g. bbPress, BuddyPress)
• Polls and Surveys
• Webinars (e.g. Webinar JEO)
• Comment sharing
• Add media, video galleries, etc.

Identify Needs/Problems And Provide Solutions To These

By taking advantage of incoming traffic to find out what users are searching for, you should have no problem coming up with ideas for new solutions, all of which can provide you with new opportunities for generating additional web traffic.

Tips

• Create an e-learning course.
• Publish educational guides that can be sold or distributed online (e.g. sell on Clickbank.
• Add an e-commerce store to your site.

Tools, Plugins, & Methods

If you plan to provide services and products online (as opposed to just providing information), then some of the more useful plugins you may want to add to your website or blog 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 the collection and analysis of data. By interpreting data gathered from existing traffic, you can discover new traffic opportunities.

Hopefully, by now you have already installed an analytics tool like Google Analytics on your website. Make sure you understand the metrics and features and can interpret the data.

WordPress Traffic System – Summary

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

In summary:

• Start 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 traffic and generate useful data) to increase your reach and visibility online,
• Add plugins, list-building strategies, and other methods as necessary to build authority, trust, and credibility, and also to improve engagement with visitors,
• 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 article has given you a blueprint that will help you automate and optimize the process of driving traffic to your web site and get better results online.

***

***