Usability Consultancy, Website Reviews, Website Optimisation

I was just reading an article about a company that was 'annoyed' at one of his competitors because they (the competitor) had done so much Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that they'd taken up 7 of the top ten spots on Google for their preferred key-phrase. My initial thought was, 'so what', and 'you could do the same'.

The article went on to have a pop at Google for not dropping the competitor for using 'suspiciously black hat' techniques. But was Google in the wrong? Was the competitor doing anything wrong?

No.

Google states that it will penalise duplicate content. However, if the content is not entirely duplicated then what can Google do about the competitor having multiple websites? What can a 'robot' with a hefty collection of complex algorithms do to determine if one website is virtually the same as another if the content is not identical?

Nothing.

I was so interested to see what other SEOs (people who do SEO for a living) were saying about this issue and, no surprise, many were saying it was unfair, it contravened Google's guidelines, it was black hat, it shouldn't be allowed...

But then I found Mr Sensible SEO who stated almost the same as my initial thought " I commend them on this strategy, my competitors do the same and when I can do it I do it too... it's the name of the game..."

Another contribution to the discussion extended on that comment, by adding " Do what they are doing. The whole point is that you have to stop worrying about whether or not your competition is playing dirty and hoping somebody will stop them, and fight back any which way you can."

It's no good running to Google to complain about every SPAM website (in this case, SPAM = Sites Positioning Above Mine), it's bad karma and, if you issue a SPAM Report to Google about every site that has a great strategy, backed up by a commited investment in their online efforts, Google may think you were just a disgruntled website owner who is simply jealous of someone else's success.

If you find your competition is dominating the search engines, your best strategy is to:

• Do everything they are doing as long as it is legal.
• Do everything you can as long as it is withing Google's terms of service.
• Do everything you can to beat the competition.
• Increase your knowledge of the search engines and SEO.
• Improve your website and linking strategy to outrank your competition.
• Do as much as you can afford to do.
• Build good content.
• Be prepared to do more than your competitor.

But, we aware that your competitor will be watching what you do and will put more effort in to their own campaign, meaning you need to come back with even more...

It never ends. Which is why so many business owners hire SEO Experts like Koss UK to do all this work for them, allowing them time to run their business while we take care of the SEO battlefield.

Search Engine Optimisation is, like I've said before, not a case of competing with the search engines, it is about competing with your competition. Some do it better than others. Don't cry about it - do something about it.