Wordpress installed on your own domain is def. the way to go. Like others have said Google loves blogs.
And with the amount of developers who are constantly working on new plugins, widgets, and themes, there is plenty to spice it up.
I've been working on a wordpress checklist in an effort to start streamlining my future websites. And then teach others to do the same. Here are a few things from my initial list.
- Install Wordpress
- Search for "seo wordpress theme" choose and install a "seo'd theme" (unless you already have a strong background in CSS and SEO in order to customize any template you like)
- Put a good Robots.txt file in your root folder
- Build a good custom 404 error page
- This is a basic list of recommended plugins (obv. you have to find your own unique combination that works best for your site, goals, etc)
- MyBlogLog Widget
- Akismet
- Google Sitemap Generator
- Show Top Commentators
- Related Posts
- WP-Contactform
- Popularity Contest
- Adsense Manager
- Sociable
- Feedburner Feed Replacement
The next item in my list is to start figuring out what categories you want to use and any static pages like contact us, about me, etc.
Hope that helps a little!