Looking at acquiring a competitor with a high organic ranking (WordPress Plugin)

[alecfwilson]

I'm looking at acquiring a competitor who operates a WordPress plugin with the same function as mine (although ours is much better - they used this plugin to acquire leads for other software). We're trying to determine the best way to execute it. They are the number 1 result on a very high value search, and the number 3 on another (which appears to the source of all their customer acquisition, they are simply a very well named, long existing WordPress plugin, and so haven't had to fight much to keep their ranking). Ideally, we'd be able to take over that ranking, but I'm not sure if that is possible. For one thing, they don't have a website beyond the WordPress plugin, so even if we wanted to, we couldn't 301 redirect it (as far as I know). Second, wouldn't a 301 redirect likely result in entirely losing the ranking? We are actually highly relevant to anyone who ends up at this plugin (the owner has actually been recommending us and contacted us because his customers who have left have had a good experience), and wouldn't be redirecting it to piggyback on the link juice, we'd be trying to acquire the customers that have been discovering this plugin organically.

I understand why Google defaults to policies making purchasing high ranking domains not very valuable. However, it seems like if you've built a company that derives a high volume of its leads (and thus acquisition value) from organic search, that there would be a way for a company in the same space to acquire at least the rankings, if not the link juice.

Hopefully that was clear, if not, let me know where I lost you, and I'll attempt to clarify.  Thanks!

[ntcma]

First thought is, this may be more of a "knock them out of the picture" move rather then really directly take over their organic traffic per se (i.e., via something automated such as a 301 redirect).

I.e., if they no longer were to exist, would your product then rise to the top of organic? What could the organic "shuffle" end up looking like?

Now, if you want to reuse some of the organic "juice" that they have earned over the years (and why not?), my best thought is to simply identify the external backlinks which point to their plugin page, and then ask if people will update their pages to link to your URL/plugin page. This would only support the first thought (the shuffle).

Now you can actually start getting new links; the acquisition of a popular plugin is fairly interesting news in some spaces – you might be able to get some PRs out regarding the takeover and start picking up new links. A bonus is that you'll get your plugin name co-cited alongside the acquired one, which may work to your benefit.

Next thought: You would of course have the opportunity to segue their plugin users into yours; handled properly you could possibly retain the majority of them! This could actually be done right within people's WP admin panels to notify them of the change, given that you would have access to their actual plugin code (which I of course assume you would).

You would have license presumably to use their plugin name for as long as you like – this would likely help. For example, if someone searches for their plugin name, you could create a web page which, over time, may end up ranking quite well for the term; I could imagine the landing page saying something like, "X is now Y" in the title tag.

Lastly, you could talk to the team at WP.org to see if they can do some sort of redirect for you. I suspect that this won't work, which I why I think that it might just be best to take the page down (in time). In the meantime you can request that the plugin page gets updated to mention that ownership has changed, and may be able to include a link to your plugin (another SEO win).

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I agree with ntcma that there are gains to be had if you wish to retain their existing clients, brand, etc., but are you looking to just sweep them out of the way in Google altogether? What is your preferred scenario?

-Andy