There are a lot of things that you can do, some more complex than others, but there are three easy steps you can take to SEO your WordPress blog today. Come on, you will be done in 15 minutes.

Before we get started, go to WebsiteGrader and check your site. If you score higher than a 75 or 80 chances are you should not do the rest of this, contact me if you would still like to improve your SEO score. if it is lower, then you may benefit greatly form following the rest of these steps.

One: Lets make sure that WordPress’s permalink structure is configured for optimal Search Engine Friendliness. Go to Settings > Permalinks, and set your permalink structure to custom, copy and paste this into the custom field.

%category%/%postname%/

Doing this changes the way your site creates links. Notice that the address of this post is

http://wednesdaywordpresswebcast.com/seo/seo-for-your-wordpress-blog-in-4-easy-steps

If I left the numeric permalink structure, it would look something more like this

http://wednesdaywordpresswebcast.com/?p=17

Obviously it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that the first link looks much better to humans, and certainly to search engines.

Two: Check your themes validation. I know this seems like a job for your web designer. But try it yourself. Go to W3C and pop in your web address. Sites written in valid code are always going to perform better in the search engines than non valid, regardless of the markup. I would rather have a html 4.0 valid site than a xhtml 1.0 non valid site. If your theme has only a few errors there is a good chance that someone with basic html skills can correct them and get your site valid. If you have a high number you may need to contact a web design firm or find a valid theme.

Three: Download All in One SEO Plugin for WordPress. Extract it and upload it to your sites Plugin directory. Activate it on the Plugins page. Once it is active, go to Settings > All in one SEO - this will take you to the configuration page for your site’s SEO. Doing this step alone, can significantly improve your sites SEO score, so make sure you follow closely on this one. If you have questions, contact me.

Fill in the Home Title first - this is what will appear in the top of the web browser. For example Wordpress Training, Learn Wordpress, Free WordPress Webcast every Wednesday. Next fill in the Home Description. This is what people see in the search results, before they reach your site, so make this text appealing. Last, complete the Home Keywords section. These are the key words or phrases, separated by commas, that you want to appear for. Try to keep the list below 10.

Four: Update the ping service. Go to Settings > Writing and scroll down to Update Services: and copy and paste this into that block, just below “http://rpc.pingomatic.com/”

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://www.kping.com/ping/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

Doing this will automatically update multiple sites every time you publish a new post.

As I mentioned there are plenty of other things you can do to SEO your WordPress Blog, but these are a good start. For more information about SEO on your WordPress Blog, contact RF Web Studio.

Will it help your blog gain popularity? Not as much as writing great content that everyone wants to get their hands on. But, if used to tag great content, then yes. So start tagging my friend.