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.

The best thing you can do is, copy and paste the entire contents into notepad. This will dump all the special encoding, font information, etc. Then again copy and paste from notepad, into the WordPress editor. Now you may use it to finish formatting your post, and adding images.

Doing this, although it takes an extra few seconds, will keep your posts cleaner, and keep a consistent look. Also it will prevent some images form not displaying or displaying incorectly. Thirdly, it may save you from sending a bunch of garbage encoded text to your entire RSS list.

So, my rule of thumb is once a week. Others certianly say daily, every other day etc. So my answer to all of you who ask how often should I post? When in doubt, just post. Think about it, if you are asking yourself, should I be blogging right now? the answer is usually Yes. Go post something.

By the way same is true for reading other blogs and commenting, if you are thinking to yourself, should I be watching YouTube now or reading and engaging other bloggers? the answer is positivly YES.

What the world Wide Web needs now is another social networking site, like I need a hole in my head. Twitter on the other hand has proven that finding a niche and providing a simple method for connecting with users is still the right way to design a web application. Twitter, is a service that allows its members to keep their friends and collogues up to date on what they are doing. Unlike Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other networking sites that allow users to do the same thing, Twitter has a very simple interface that only asks one question; “what are you doing”?

Users may invite their contacts to “follow” them on twitter, so that any time they update their twitter profile anyone who is following them will get an update. It is a relatively simple concept that is taking the internet by storm. Many companies are choosing Twitter as a way to keep their customers abreast on new products, services, promotions and more. Barack Obama has chosen to use Twitter as a way to keep his 40,000 plus followers abreast of his agenda. See Twitter.com/BarackObama

Although signing up for a Twitter profile is a pretty easy process, advanced use of a twitter data can make using Twitter even easier. You can integrate your Twitter profile into customized home pages like iGoogle and most popular blogging platforms. You can even subscribe to twitter updates via RSS readers like Outlook and Google Reader. This way following someone on Twitter is as easy as checking an email.

You can even take using Twitter a step further by integrating your Twitter profile into other social networking sites like Facebook with the free Twitter application developed. Linkedin and MySpace offer similar API’s.

So why Twitter? Because it is easy. It is a fun way for your friends and family to keep track of what you are doing, and it could help you stay informed on important social issues.  Enjoy, Tweet!

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.

Be careful not to come accross as wanting a link exchange. Most bloggers get a number of these request and usually discard them or even find them annoying. A simple hello should work.