As some of you have probably (not) noticed, I am attempting to make this presence a tad more "search engine friendly".  I realize that this site does not have much marketability, aside from a few themes and some opaque blog entries, but my goal is to learn more about the dynamics that govern the search engine optimization (SEO) process through measureable interventions.

I have become fond of Google Webmaster Tools, especially the Analytics app.  This excellent tool presents a top-level perspective, as well as an itemized view of all traffic sources siphoned down to "keywords".   Upon review of this information, I implemented numerous remedies to remove irrelevant and idiotic descriptions ("a community of misfits and blaggards" was a bad idea) and keywords to effectively re-align my content.  Also, I had the opportunity to meet my audience via the "site referral" list generated from those gracious enough to retain the (this) sites URL within the downloadable themes. 

With a clearer concept of what content drives my traffic, the obvious course is to maintain and improve ranking, but what happens when the content was incorrectly presented in the first place?  For example, the primary and only relevant Google query to this site is "Free Community Server 2008 Themes", which garners a top-five hit; however, removing the words "free" and "2008" pushes it back to a third page listing behind a slew of irrelevant and somewhat dated entries.  So the dilemma faced is a foreseeable loss in rank when the next iteration of Community Server launches, since my driving content is associated with a depreciable value (2008).  What if I add an additional blog entry, almost identical to the first, but with a general-specific description such as "Community Server Themes"?   Does this constitute a dubious duplication of content to entice traffic, which is specifically forbidden by the holy tome of Google-ethics?  Well, it does, but that is not going to stop me from doing it...at least temporarily.  This exercise will provide some valuable insight on how to mitigate "branding" discrepancies and the length of time for Google to wash away the echoes of my past idiocy.  I guess since I took the time to write about I should follow-up with any progress (if any), or just willfuly make stuff up...

COMING SOON: Andy's Digital JAV Super Happy Fun Site! 

For those looking to enhance the SEO process within Community Server, I refer you to an excellent top-level summary (.ppt), authored by the guru and founder of Telligent, Rob Howard.