I hear this so often that I felt the need to create a post about it.

“So I have this topic I want on the first page of Google results.  How many times should I use the keyword on my page?”

There are opposing views on this topic, depending on who you talk to, past experiences, the keyword, Google total results… the list goes on.  Is there truly a correct answer?

I take the view of this:  If I am holding a conversation with another person about a specific topic, how often should I use the same keyword?  I know.. this is an open-ended way to bring the topic about.. you just want results.  Maybe there is just a magic formula that someone who is a search engine optimization specialist should be able to quote.  In reality, if there was a formula, it would work for one search engine, not all of the major ones.

Take the previous paragraph.  I used the necessary verbiage to get the point across.  I did not fluff, stuff keywords, use black hat tricks in the paragraph...

I am writing this article after spending a week or so dealing with plugins and getting failed validation through W3C constantly with many of them.  Validation is ensuring your HTML, CSS, RSS, and other aspects of your site meet the accepted standards discussed at W3C.  Why is this so important to a good site?  Is a attribute tag of data- used in XHTML good coding when it is specifically used in HTML5?  There are several views that one could have about validation, most notably: “The big sites don’t validate,” “Google says it does not require validation,” “Validation ensures that as many web viewers as possible are able to see your site correctly.”

Lets look over one of the biggest web traffic sites, Facebook.  So a W3C Unicorn validation of the HTML and other site properties lists 37 HTML errors, 35 CSS errors, 2 RSS errors, and the Internationalization standard validates.  Are they worried about this?  Most definitely not, they are established with millions of unique visitors a month, well known by all Search Engine Spiders(SES), and actually help establish some attributes due to the demand of their developer tools...

You just installed a blank WordPress site.  Congratulations!  To get the site up and running, there are a few things to do in the admin area.  You can find those listed here.

Now that you have the admin area taken care of, its time to deal with some major SEO issues that come with a blank WordPress install.

• The first of the 3 Quick WordPress SEO Tips is: fix the category section.  This is a keyword sensitive area, so replacing Uncategorized with Site News or some other category that will relate to your content is imperative.  Not only should you replace Uncategorized, you should also add several sub categories.  Again, keep these related to content you expect to deliver.  Give each category a valid description ( try and keep it in sentence format).   An example of valid categories is below:

Example of valid changes to categories from a fresh install of WordPress

• The second of the 3 Quick WordPress SEO Tips is: install the plugins that are necessary to add sitemaps, SEO content per page/post, and other SEO intensive initiatives.  To add these plugins, just head to your admin panel.  Under the menu option of Appearance is the tab Plugins...