How to report a business that built 3 websites to get traffic?

[Santi1077]

Hi SEO family,

I work with a few landscapers in the Texas area. I noticed possibly the worst case of spam in the 8 years of SEO. Attached below is a competitor that has created 3 websites to gain traffic. As of now it has worked, its confirmed its the same business as it even has the same contact number in all 3 sites. What can be done?

 

[fisicx]

Not a lot. People have been doing this ever since the first search engines launched. Google might eventually catch up and penalise them but it's unlikely.

Looking at the first site there isn't actually anything wrong with the site. And if it gets leads and the customers are happy why would Google do anything.

But, it wouldn't be difficult to outrank them. Which I assume the main issue you have.

 

[Glass]

Is this bad? Or wrong? Or spam?

I know you’re only supposed to have one Google Business Profile per business, but what says only one website?

 

[Santi1077]

Not a lot. People have been doing this ever since the first search engines launched. Google might eventually catch up and penalise them but it's unlikely.

Looking at the first site there isn't actually anything wrong with the site. And if it gets leads and the customers are happy why would Google do anything.

But, it wouldn't be difficult to outrank them. Which I assume the main issue you have.

Hi there, thank you for your response! I suspected this. When I was taught SEO getting aquatinted with Google guidelines was the first step. In all honesty it’s a little of everything, just me doing competitor analysis for my client but also understanding how to combat spam in this case.

I hope that in bringing this up it doesn’t encourage others to create multiple sites just to gain more SERP real estate. I have already went ahead and submitted a Google redressal form. I’ll keep you updated on what’s happens.

 

[Santi1077]

Is this bad? Or wrong? Or spam?

I know you’re only supposed to have one Google Business Profile per business, but what says only one website?

It’s definitely against Google guidelines. There are ways to get around this but i personally don’t want to encourage this method.