SEO (Search engine Optimization) is mysterious.  That’s why it is so hard to understand.  Most articles written about SEO makes the assumption that everyone knows what they are talking about.  Wrong!  Most people don’t have a clue.  So here’s my simple explanation that has not been downloaded from an IT brain.

SEO is all about keywords.  Keywords are words that relate specifically to what you are talking about or what you are promoting on your site?  Example; if your site is about ‘carpenter tools’ keywords may be; hammer, saw, screwdriver, etc.  There is also something called ‘long tail keywords’.  Examples for long tail keywords would be; ball-pein hammer, claw hammer, Phillips screwdriver, hex screwdriver or skill saw.  If you were branding you may even use the brand in your ling tail; such as, vaughan nail hammers.
These are all placed within the code of each page where these words are used.  Also there are description codes on each page.  This is usually only the first two or three lines of the first text on each page.

Search engines have things called robots that scan the internet constantly looking for keywords people are searching for.  The pages that are the best ‘optimized’ are the pages that show up on the first page of the search results.

Optimization is a process that assures the keywords, long tail keywords and descriptions are all pertinent to what the site is all about.  All robots are not created equal and that’s what makes optimization more difficult.  But they all set ranking based on the relevance to your site based on these keywords and descriptions.

In my opinion, Platinum SEO Pack is the most simple SEO Optimization plugin for Wordpress available and is good for the newbies.  This plugin adds Title, Description and keywords fields at the bottom of each ‘Add Page or Post in Admin.

SEO Automatic WP Core Tweaks is better but not as simple as the Platinum to use.  It provides advanced optimization features that have proven to be beneficial.