I was reading somewhere that Google LOVES wordpress; BUT... also that there are some directories that should be blocked from google accessing them as it might read it as duplicate content on your site. Has anyone done this or applied this method? Care to share your .htaccess file settings here for wordpress?
Take a look at this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/askapache-password-protect/ It seriously locks down your WordPress via htaccess and works great.
There's no need to use a .htaccess file from an SEO perspective - security on the other hand yes, but not SEO. For SEO, just take a look at my WordPress SEO Checklist [sitepoint.com].