I agree with many of the other comments that WordPress is your best solution. As far as ease of use, it surpasses any other CMS and it is rock solid on SEO. I would recommend the all-in-one-seo plugin along with changing your permalink structure in the admin area to create "pretty URLS" instead of bloggy ones. Then it's really up to you to make sure that you're using best practices to capture keywords. For niche keywords and local SEO, I'm almost always able to capture Google top 10 using WordPress because the competition is pretty low.
I would have to recommend Joomla ... It's great for SEO, it's open source and it's very easy to use... Also, very easy to learn and does not require HTML experience or knowledge...
here ya go, try this: Do a Google for a really popular term like "how to make money on the internet", see who's ranking #1, then see what kind of CMS THAT site uses ...
Looks like it's got to be Drupal. Well, the first one is a youtube vid, but the second one has got to be a Drupal site: http://grownupgeek.com/make-a-website , http://grownupgeek.com/user
"how to make money on the internet" doesn't mean drupal is the best... But it probably is then. Is drupal as easy to setup as WP?
I've setup both, and to me it was just as easy, but because there are so many more options and you can do so much more, there is a bit more 'configuration' to do. A lot of people have also complained that Drupal is difficult to learn - i had no problem at all learning how to use it, but because of number of people that have mentioned this, there must be something to it..
What you are saying is .. The lazy folk steer clear from drupal and everyone else uses joomla or WP? Jokin' I think I need to toss up a Drupal Site... I think unfamiliar territory can be intimidating....