The discussion on Twitter revolved around competitor research and replicating SEO strategies. One individual analyzed a competitor and noticed overtly spammy tactics that seemed to be benefiting the competitor. John Mueller joined the conversation, offering insights into competitor research that were quite enlightening.
Original Question on Twitter:
“Hey SEOs, will I get penalized for duplicating local service pages and simply changing the city names? For instance, will ‘HVAC Repair Dallas’ and ‘HVAC Repair Houston’ be flagged as duplicate content if they are identical except for the city?”
Someone else tweeted:
“How frustrating it is when a site that appears to have thin content still manages to rank well.”
John Mueller’s Response:
“They might be ranking well despite these things, not because of them — no need to copy their bad practices, when you know better!”
Red Herrings in SEO
A red herring is a literary device used to mislead readers with a clue that seems to lead to an obvious conclusion. Writers use red herrings to surprise readers when the seemingly guilty party turns out to be innocent, and the seemingly innocent turns out to be the true culprit.
When analyzing why a site is not ranking or why a site ranks well, it’s easy to latch onto the most obvious clue and cease further examination.
Years ago, someone reached out and claimed they were under a negative SEO attack causing their rankings to decline. Upon checking their backlinks, I noticed they contained extremely inappropriate anchor text. Trusting their competence, I assumed it was a negative SEO issue.
Finding this interesting, I sent the case to someone at Google. The response I received a couple of days later was that it wasn’t negative SEO; it was a Panda issue.
This situation taught me a valuable lesson in SEO: to keep researching beyond the most obvious reason for a ranking drop. Often, the apparent reason isn’t the actual cause.
Another example involved someone experiencing a drop due to a Medic Update. They believed their site lacked enough Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) signals. After a thorough review, I found the site wasn’t flawed; it just wasn’t relevant.
I recommended changes to make their pages more relevant, and soon the site began climbing up the SERPs.
The key takeaway is to be cautious when copying competitor tactics, as those methods might not be the factors driving their rankings.
