We love WordPress. It's blogging software that's simple, easy to use, incredibly powerful, compatible with a huge number of open source templates that will easily give you a great looking blog...and it's FREE!

Now it's entirely possible that you don't already know the value of adding a blog to your Web site or know exactly where to start. In that case, please check out a few articles we have on the subject that are good primers leading you up to the point of needing WordPress:

• BLOG stands for Better Listings On Google!
• You've decided to add a blog. Now what?!
• Don't Have Your Blog on Your Main Domain? Big Mistake!

Content is still king, just now-a-days it's blog content that is leading the pack. WordPress is the current leader in blogging software in the community because of its power, customization and community support. Out of the box it does a good job, but we all know that you need solid SEO applied to your content and posts in order for them to give you the most benefit.

Making WordPress search-friendly does require a bit of tweaking, but the good news is that most of it is simple to do. And once you've got WordPress set up the right way you've got a lean, mean, search engine-friendly blogging machine that's ready to take on the big dogs.

Today we'll show you how to get a highly optimized blog with just a few hours of set-up time. Of course, then it's up to you to add the killer content that'll blaze your way to the top of the rankings.

WordPress Installation Basics

First, always download—and be sure to upgrade to—the latest version of WordPress on a regular basis. This is critical for se...