What would you do?

[manuanr]

A competitor of mine got 2 websites at the same niche, ranking places one and two.

They are buying backlinks and do whatever it takes to stay in those positions. They are big company so competition might be very hard…

What would you do? Do you think reporting to google can solve this issue?

Thank you very much for your time…

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

If they are actually buying links or using any shady techniques - they will get what they deserve, don't worry. And I don't think you can report this type of activity without hard proof.

I'd recommend rather focusing on your work - seo, natural backlinks, content and all of that. The reason your competitor is ranking #1 is not necessarily due to buying backlinks, since there are so many other factors.

Hope this helps.

[manuanr]

Thank you very much for your detailed professional response.

[badgergravling]

It depends on the competitive nature and how ethical the industry niche is as a whole. You tend to find certain areas of bad practice get cleaned up more effectively than others - and don't forget that there was supposed to be a major Penguin manual algorithm update rolling out since the start of the year which has been continually been delayed before it moves into constant rolling auto updates - so unethical practices may be even more risky than before in the next few months.

If you're in position 3, I wouldn't worry too much - there are some studies which show positions 2 & 3 can actually get more clicks than 1 depending on user behaviour, and the increase in PPC slots at the top of results pages only confuses things further (Especially as reports today indicate about 50% of people don't even realise there are paid ads at the top of search results).

I'd agree with Dmitrii that for the time being, it's best to concentrate on what you're doing, and making sure that you won't get caught out by any algorithm updates, then wait a month or two at least to see what affect the next rollout has... Obviously in the meantime, you may be losing some business, but it's potentially more cost effective to invest in some PPC in the short term to see whether that has a bigger impact than moving up organically...

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

Good feedback from the community here

If a competitor is actually spamming the local pack, you have the option to report them, but it has to be more than that they are just outranking you. There needs to be proof of spam. Lacking that, I agree with what Dmitrii and Dan have suggested about focusing on your own work. You might like to go through our big Local SEO checklist to be sure you're doing everything you can:

https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-checklist

Hope this helps!

[manuanr]

Thank you for the professional answer. Is there any place I can check for upcoming google updates?

[manuanr]

Miriam, thank you for the good answer. This is very good checklist.

[MiriamEllis]

So glad you find the Checklist helpful!