The basics of WordPress SEO are not difficult but need to be followed through carefully. Below are various things you need to do both to set-up WordPress properly and to produce search engine friendly content.

Choose the right keywords:

This is always the key to successful SEO, it is worth spending time at the outset to review the competition and be aware of the amount of work it will take to rank for the chosen keywords.

Use an SEO friendly Theme:

Many themes are designed to look good rather than support WordPress SEO. It is therefore advisable to choose a theme that satisfies both, even if this does mean looking at premium (paid for) themes.

Set Permalinks:

Make sure that the Permalinks are set to "%postname%" which means that the post/page title will appear in the URL. For WordPress SEO purposes this is much better than the default setting which is to use a number.

Create Sitemap:

Create a site map for the search engines. A plugin like "Google XML Sitemaps" makes this easy.

Install the "All In One SEO Pack" plugin:

This is the best known and most popular WordPress SEO plugin. It improves WordPress SEO in a number of ways and most users will be happy with its default settings. What you do need to do is enter a title, description and keywords for the homepage. These will be shown on the search results when the link is to the blog rather than an individual page or post and should entice people to click on your entry. Other functions of this WordPress SEO plugin include:

• Giving control over how titles are displayed

• Controlling duplicate content by preventing it being indexed

• Allowing entry of meta data for each page post

On Each Page/Post:

• Write a compelling title including a keyword.

• Edit the URL as necessary. If your title is long, shorten the URL making sure to keep the keyword.

• Use the keyword in all headings.

• Use the keyword throughout the content and particularly in the first sentence.

• Include a graphic and put the keyword as the ALT text.

• Write a good meta description.

• Have links to other pages/posts on your site.

• Include external links to authority sites in your niche. Be careful not to link to any site that Google may consider dubious as this can reflect on your site.

Producing search engine friendly content is really the key to WordPress SEO and you really need to check each page/post before publishing it. Fortunately you can install a plugin to do this for you.