WordPress is a popular open-source blogging platform that has a powerful set of features and can be extended through the use of free plug-ins, of which there are thousands.
To maximize the usefulness of WordPress as a business tool, you should take advantage of every opportunity to optimize your blog for search engines.
WordPress Documentation
WordPress' Codex includes a page dedicated to SEO topics and this page is a must-read for anybody operating a WordPress blog.
This page includes important information about setting up SEO-friendly permalinks, maintaining a healthy Robots.txt file for search engines and making sure that you're taking advantage of feed submissions. It also links to websites with useful SEO information.
WordPress Plugins
There are a number of great plug-ins that make it easy to implement SEO techniques with WordPress.
The "All in One SEO Pack" is one of the most downloaded WordPress plug-ins and performs a number of functions, including optimizing your page titles, adding META tags automatically and removing common duplicate content.
Another popular plug-in, Google XML Sitemaps creates a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap for your blog.
This plug-in enables you to create and edit Robots.txt files from within the WordPress admin.
Redirection helps you monitor 404 errors, automatically manage 301 redirections when a post URL changes and has a powerful set of features that helps you redirect users to different pages based on various conditions.
Add breadcrumb navigation to your WordPress blog with this plug-in.
This plug-in allows your blog to feature "related posts."
SEO Friendly Images automatically adds the ALT and TITLE attributes to images.
This plug-in enables you to decide which comments, pingbacks and trackbacks have or don't have the "nofollow" attribute which is otherwise automatically added by WordPress.
Recommended reports
SEO Best Practice: SEO copywriting
The SEO Best Practice: SEO Copywriting Guide is part of Econsultancy's renowned SEO Best Practice Guide and is has been created with the help and frontline insight of globally-esteemed SEO practitioners, in order to give you the edge in your natural search marketing activity.
Alternatively, see our PPC Bid Management Technology Buyer's Guide 2010 or SEM: SEO Request for Proposal (RFP).
SEO at Cheapflights Media
10:55AM on 12th June 2008
Any Wordpress SEO post this week should also have a reference to Joost's Wordpress SEO "ultimate guide"
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
Well worth a read for anyone optimising Wordpress blogs/sites.
Director of Product Development at Econsultancy
12:19PM on 12th June 2008
Great catch Adam, and a worthy suggestion. Joost is the man.
1:28PM on 1st August 2009
It's a nice article.Thank's for it.It's really help my work.
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10:23PM on 17th March 2011
I did not knew that kbrobots can do wonders. I am now installing it thanks for your help :-)