Worst Local Business SEO Ever?

So I'm sitting here working on my authority site and i hear something come through the letter box. Its a business card for what i can only assume is a new start up local business. I'm not gonna give away exactly what it was but it's a niche transport service. For a start half the business card was grey with white text which made it nearly impossible to read which wasn't the best start but certainly not the worst thing. Secondly their contact email was a yahoo address which was strange and looked rather unprofessional. Lastly their website URL was terrible, abbreviated words that didn't need to be and unnecessary characters on the end but at least it was a UK domain.

Now at first glance this might just look like a bit of poor set up, however i then decided i would have a look at their site to see what it was like. I typed it in and i got a BT error page saying the website could not be found. I typed it in a few more times to make sure i was spelling it correctly due to all the pointless characters in it. After five tries i had to admit that i was spelling it correctly and wondered what was wrong. So i went to a domain registrar for UK domains and looked up their domain. It hadn't even been registered, so they'd printed it on their business cards without even buying it yet. Another strange fact is that they are perfect EMD domains for their business available and yet they went with that one.

So my question to you guys is firstly, what do you think of that? And secondly, is this a good business opportunity for me, if i buy the domain and then the perfect one too. Then leave a message offering my services? Is that legit or are there better ways to go about this? Potential offline client?

Maybe they got it wrong on the business card? It's unlikely that they've not registered a domain and just printed it without a website but then some people in this world really are clueless lol.

Give them a ring/email and ask what's up. Could be a potential client for web design and more.

Let us know how you get on.

Buying a domain that is close to them in order to take advantage of their mistake is, in my opinion (it really depends on one's ethics), unethical. However, you could also point that you just saw a potential domain name that could multiply in value over time so I guess you have to thank them for that.

I agree with Dreadnought, instead of you being a client of theirs, it could be the other way around using a convincing conversation between you and their company manager.

Yeah i agree, i think i'll give them an email to point out their mistake, and point out that there is a better domain available. I had a look around other similar domains and i genuinely think they haven't registered a domain, because nothing even remotely close to the one on the card exists

UPDATE i emailed the address they had listed on their business card with a list of tips for them to improve their business presence online. The hope was that they would choose to accept my services and i'd get my first client. The problem then was that i hadn't fully set up my offline SEO site at the time so i couldn't link to it. So a couple of weeks pass and i find myself thinking that they have probably just ignored me or just taken the free tips and left it at that.

Then today a business card comes through the door, it is like 3 times the size of a normal business card and at first i find it a lot better (except for the size) better imagery and more information except this time there is no email listed but at least they have used both sides. I notice they now have a different website address listed on the card which is better than before but still targets the wrong keywords. So i figured i'd check it out anyway to see if they have paid attention to my advice... now comes the best part...

It does not exist... once again they have not registered the site before putting it on their business cards, the exact domain on the card is up for registration on all the domain registrars. This boggled my mind somewhat because they have made the same amazing mistake twice. Problem now is that there is no email for me to email them on so i may just send them one on the old one. I have my offline SEO site set up now so may still be able to land them as a client because my god they need me so bad.

Any thoughts?

This is crazy, who in the hell would pay for business cards, postage and so on, and pretend to have a website... I think this guy is one sandwich short of a picnic

ardley216 said:

This is crazy, who in the hell would pay for business cards, postage and so on, and pretend to have a website... I think this guy is one sandwich short of a picnic

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It does seem very strange that they have made the same mistake twice especially one that will basically prevent them from getting their business off the ground.

steinbach19 said:

I think you should shot them an email, on the same email address, probably they are replying.

Don't you have the address from where the business care came ?

That would be good, and you can find them.

PS: Probably they don't even know what they are doing, since they made the same mistake twice, and they don't even pay attention to their domain, they don't care if it's registered or not, but they still print it on the BC, and they send it to people, not that's LOL.

Probably that guy has to much money, and it's just a play for him, just jokin.

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I'm gonna send them another email about this because im simply amazed by them to be honest. I agree i don't think they have a clue what they are doing since they didn't even follow the advice i gave them properly. This is definitely a chance for me to land my first offline client i think.

Subscribed. It would be pretty interesting to see what happens

Register the domains and cash in on the free traffic. lol