Search Engines have come a long way since web's beginnings. Back in old days it seemed like anything you typed in would ultimately show at least one or more pornographic web site. Well, luckily those days have passed us and getting indexed on search engines has become a necessity of doing business on Internet. In my experience with personally working on over 250 business web sites in last six years (an having them all indexed), I have accumulated a substantial list of techniques that work and don’t work. There are literally hundreds of things that will have a negative effect on your ranking. Below is a list of my top ten.

1. Have no html text on your home page.

Because search engine robots are still not able to read images (jpegs, gifs etc), you will be guaranteed to not get indexed - because there is nothing to index.

2. Have a 100% Flash driven web site.

Some search engines are now able to index certain parts of flash, but as a general rule of thumb flash sites do not get indexed.

3. Dump a bunch of keywords on your home page and change colour so they are visible to eye.

While there is no published standard, most online professionals agree that tricking search engines by adding a large number of keywords on your home page is bound to get you black-listed on search engines.

4. Create an automatic redirect that sends someone to another web site (from your home page)

If you code your web site so that when someone visits it, it will go to another page instantly - most search engines will ban you.

5. Rely solely on your Keyword and Description meta-tags.

Then I think what if World Wide Web had lost out to World Wide Subway System (WWSS) or some other less noble term? Then I take it one step further and think, "What if term search had lost out to seek"? Let's think about this for a moment. Seek is a good word with a nearly identical meaning to search. In fact, in Oxford American Dictionary (with torn off cover and publishing info) it states that seek means "…to make a search or inquiry for, to try to find or obtain or do."

In Seek Of

What would be repercussions of using seek speak instead of search? First there would be seek engines and seek engine optimizers who would try to get top rankings on these engines. Then you would have specialized seeking going on like local seek, personalized seek and contextual seek. There may be terms bandied about like seek engine specific algorithms, seek options, seek tips, seek tools and seek toolbars. If you're looking for someone online, this would be people seek. If there is something that you cannot find, you would be seeking high and low. Out in real world you may conduct a talent seek for next teen idol.