Dave, I'm following earlier advice and not worrying about it anymore. But since you ask what I find underhanded about it, here are a few reasons:
1. Why would that company list all those Florida web designer's sites when a surfer isn't likely to see them in the first place?
2. Who is going to scroll past their background to read the list? Most people would assume it's the end of the page. And, in the unlikely event that the Average Joe DOES scroll all the way down the page to find those other firms listed, he can't click the link to check out those firms, because it isn't a clickable link. And on top of that, Average Joe can't even copy and paste the URL in his browser's address bar because they've disabled the drag and copy function. They didn't use that code on their regular pages accessible by their navigation system. Oh heck no...You can drag, copy, cut and paste till the cows come home on their "real" pages.
3. This particular page is not accessible via their home page or any other page on their site. So what's the purpose of listing all those Web design firms in Florida? If one views the source code, as the search engines do, it's full of keyword phrases for Web Design, Hosting,
SEO, SEM --the whole gamut of services-- in Florida. That sure smells "fishy" to me.
Host4Net.com is a registered domain in NC, but I believe they probably have or will set up pages of links similar to the Florida one for every State in the Union. It's an underhanded tactic used to get a lot of keyword phrases to capture people searching for a Florida web design or web hosting firm because it's a bogus page full of Florida keyword phrases.
Would you create a page like this on your web site? I sure wouldn't. I think it's sneaky. What is the purpose? Certainly not to throw business to any of the companies they've listed, that's for darn sure. Nor does it help the site's visitor. It's trickery. They're not making it easy for someone landing there who expects to find a "Florida designer" or "Florida hosting services", etc. CBP previously posted that these kinds of sites do poorly in SERPS anyway, so that's another good reason not to fret about it.
It might sound like I'm complaining about competition for business, but I'm not. Quite the contrary. Competition is good for us, it challenges us to set higher goals and fuels our desire to please our clients. And, we certainly don't have to live in the States we do business in, but as a Florida business woman, many of my clients actually want a "neighborhood designer" or they want to do business with a firm in their own State for lots of different reasons, but mostly because we know our territory and we're available.
If Host4Net.com wants the Florida market, then I think they should go for it. But they should do it with integrity and for the sake of all of us in this profession, they should be ethical and play by the rules.
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