The “SEO” Steelers

A client of mine contacted me today asking how I was associated with the greatest football team ever to exist, Pittsburgh Steelers. I told them, simply, that I was in no way “affiliated” with them, and my only “association” was that, after my dear wife, children and parents, I love them more than anything. Well, that may be accurate, but regardless, I questioned them on their inquiry.

It seems if you misspell my name, “clicknathen.com”, with an e there instead of a second a, you are redirected to seosteelers.com Update: These guys contacted me and informed me that they have removed the redirect from clicknathen.com to their site. They also asked me to remove this post, but I feel it still stands even with their efforts to rectify the situation.

Apparently, an SEO company in PGH is not only using a variation of my domain name to drive traffic to their own site, but they’re riding on the backs of Big Ben and company to do so.

Why You Should be Wary of SEOSteelers.com

  1. They are in violation of copyright laws. By using not only the term “Steelers” in their name, but also by showing a video of a Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl game right on their homepage, they are implying that they’re affiliated with the Steelers and/or the NFL. That’s not only bad practice, it’s illegal. Do you want a company who breaks the law fouling up your site? Google not only penalizes sites that use poor practices, they can remove you from their results altogether.
  2. They are not web developers or designers. The company uses a prebuilt website service for their own site. This means that, even for their very own website selling their services, they used a fast food solution for their business. If they’re not even working with their own code, they’re definitely not at the level required to deliver a fast, custom-coded site for your business. Basically, they’re dumpster diving for Big Macs for their own website, so what do you think the main course will be for the meal they provide you?
  3. Black hat techniques. The above examples are indicators that these folks are more about short term results than long term strategy. If you’ve never heard the terms black hat, white hat, or otherwise, I encourage you to read my primer on SEO and a review of the top web design firms in Pittsburgh from last year.

Am I being a baby?

It’s true, these guys are a competitor. But I’m not adverse to recommending competitors. Their are a ton of great web designers and developers out there, and a solid handful of good SEO companies. But a company that violates laws to gain search placement for themselves will no doubt employ the same practices on your own site. When Google (or the NFL in this case) finds out, they’ll be blocked altogether. Therefor, they’re not even a competitor of mine. They’re a short term annoyance in search result listings.

Pittsburgh has a plethora of great developers and designers. From firms like Bearded and Full Stop, to individuals like Andy Weigel, you have options. If you’re looking to get to the top of Google’s rankings for a few months, only to drop out of site for eternity, then yeah, these SEO Steelers guys are you company.

If you want to build a business that will last, try one of the guys above or get in touch with me and we can talk about building something that can last.

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