Suggestions on good framework/code for building an optimized website?

[ksracer]

There seem to be quite a few template, framework, and theme options for building a site optimized for search.

I'm currently looking at Socrates and Genesis premium themes for Wordpress. Does anyone have experience or suggestions on these resources?

[RobertFisher]

We are going away from Genesis Framework as there are just too many moving parts for development.

For basic sites that do not need a lot of complexity we like WP 70% and use studiopress, themeforest, etc. We use all in one and Platinum SEO as well.

I personally like Joomla for more complexity and really think it can be more intuitive at times. My developers use it about 20 to 25% of the time. The rest we use Drupal and rarely others.

For handling myriad sites, etc. I think this is a reasonable mix. If you think your site will grow, need other functions (change from A to Ecommerce etc.) I would go with Joomla.

[RobMay]

We also shifted focus away from other CMS systems in Wordpress (unless the goal of the site and traffic is built around a Blog marketing strategy), and moved to using mainly Drupal 7 at this time, but I also am a big fan of Joomla.

If I were you, take some time to look into sites build on these platforms and explore the options. They offer incredible flexibility.

[ksracer]

I have virtually no direct experience with Joomla and Drupal, but your feedback pretty much confirms my inclination to move in that direction to meet the goals of some upcoming projects.

All-in-One SEO seems to be popular on WP. Any thoughts on how it compare to SEO by Yoast?

Thanks Robert (and Rob). This is helpful stuff.