Competitor frustration

[MagicianUK]

I've tried to be completely "white hat" in my SEO efforts and my site ranks pretty well.  However I'm being consistently beaten in the rankings by sites that pull every trick in the book and never seem to get penalised.  One of my main competitors has 100s of near identical pages (just the town name different on each) and ranks close to or at the top for many searches, and has done for a couple of years now!  Another uses massive keyword stuffing without any apparent adverse results.  I don't want to follow their example, but my business is suffering as a result.  Why can they get away with it and is there any way to "complain" to Google about it?

[EricPratum30]

You may have already checked this, but are they outranking you when you remove personalization and localization from the equation?

Also, do you know that they're really getting more traffic and business just because they outrank you?

[Jinx14678]

Hi,

My main advice to you is to not worry about they are doing to rank above you.... I know that might seem counter-intuitve, but at this point it seems that is not really helping you, it is only making you focus on a goal that might not bring you business.

As Eric says,

1. Are you sure these are good keywords that bring targeted traffic?

If so, take away the idea of forensics, since you do not want to emulate what they are doing, you want to do things that make you stand apart from them...

I am sure you have heard someone throw around the word "content"

Well so am I.... Content...... Make sure you are providing a user experience on your website that would garner true interest in content that people looking for you, or looking for information around items/services you may provide.

Build this content, and build a social circle around it, build relationships and the rankings will come, if they are truly using "Black Hat" tactics they will eventually either get penalized, or you will outrank them due to you will be providing a more genuine user experience with genuine content.

Also this more sets you up for the future, as Search Engines might not be the only game in town for long, so making a more well rounded "person-centric" strategy in my opinion is better than worrying about why competitor a or b is beating you for a single term in Google.

Hope this helps