WordPress comes with several built in search optimization tools, including the ability to use .htaccess to create apparently static URLs called permalinks, blogrolling, and pinging. There are also a number of third party plugins and hacks which can be used for search engine optimization (SEO).
However, after tweaking WordPress to your likings, you may find yourself dragging in search engine rankings. WordPress isn't exactly the most SEO application out of the box, either.

Here are some basic guidelines to ensure your WordPress blog is search engine optimized.

Good, Clean Code

Make sure your site's code validates. Errors in your code may prevent a search engine from moving through the site successfully.

Content Talks

Search engines can't "see" a site. They can only "read" a site. Pretty does not talk to a search engine. What "talks" to a search engine are the words, the content, the material in your site that explains, shares, informs, educates, and babbles. Make sure you have quality word content for a search engine to examine and compare with all the parts and pieces to give you a good "score".

Write Your Content with Searchers in Mind

How do you find information on the Internet? If you are writing something that you want to be "found" on the Internet, think about the words and phrases someone would use to find your information. Use them more than once as you write, but not in every sentence. Learn how search engines scan your content, evaluate it, and categorize it so you can help yourself get in good favor with search engines.

Content First

A search engine enters your site and, for the most part, ignores the styles and CSS. It just plows through the site gathering content and information. Most WordPress Themes are designed with the content as close to the top of the unstyled page as possible, keeping sidebars and footers towards the bottom. Few search engines scan more than the first third of the page before moving on. Make sure your Theme puts the content near the top.

Keywords, Links, and Titles Meet Content

Search engines do not evaluate your site on how pretty it is, but they do evaluate the words and put them through a sifter, giving credit to certain words and combinations of words. Words found within your meta tag keywords listings and within your document are compared to words found within your links and titles. The more that match, the better your "score."

Content in Links and Images

Your site may not have much text, mostly photographs and links, but you have places in which to add textual content. Search engines look for alt and title in link and image tags. While these have a bigger purpose of making your site more accessible, having good descriptions and words in these attributes helps provide more content for search engines to digest.

It is not how good your site is, it is how good the sites are that link to you. This still holds weight with search engine favoritism. It's about who links to you. Blogrolls, pingbacks, and trackbacks are all built into WordPress. These help you link to other people, which gives them credit, but it also helps them link to you, connecting the "links."

The number of incoming links your site has that have been recognized by Google can be checked by typing link:www.yoursite.com into Google (other search engines have similar functions). Other ways to generate incomming links to your site include: * Add your site's url to your signature on forum posts on other sites. * Submit your site to directories (see below). * Note: Leaving comments on blogs will not help with this, since all modern blogging tools use the rel="nofollow" attribute. Don't be a comment spammer.

Good Navigation Links

A search engine crawls through your site, moving from page to page. Good navigational links to the categories, archives, and various pages on your site will invite a search engine to move gracefully from one page to another, following the connecting links and visiting most of your site.

Stay Connected

Besides building backlinks, it's important to build actual connections with other bloggers and readers. Post regularly on other sites and get to know the people at the top of your genre. Stay up to date with the latest WordPress SEO techniques with Ontora Web Marketing.

About Author:

Mark Spencer is currently a graphic designer living in Portland, Oregon and writes for Ontora, a web marketing blog.