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Thank you all for your excellent answers

I was definitely not asking for permission. I guess I was expressing frustration and looking for answers.

I have an advantage over my competitors in that I own the copyright to everything I do so i can create content for every client, that can include, the audio track I produce for them, the lyrics of their song, possibly video, and the text telling their story. The main reason for doing this is to enable them to share it with friends and family, but I am aware that I should get an SEO bonus from it too.

The other site created another 170 fake search engine pages this month. It isn't that they don't have content at the front end of their site, but I think people will read the home page, and if they like what they see  get the phone number or fill in the contact form. I think that approach will effect their bounce rate.

My approach has been to encourage the visitors to watch a video to see a fully personalized singing telegram n action but more importantly the reactions of the people's faces. The plan is that they will stay on the site longer, and that that will eventually improve my site in Google's eyes..

I don't want to take the cheater route, even if it got me to number one.

Thanks for your replies. Much appreciated

In analysing my competitors website I have discovered that they have over 600 fake pages that appear to have been created by some sort of internal search engine software, all pages are exactly alike except for the keyword and the words "no results found" on every page. I have discovered, elsewhere, that their duplicate content is abnormally high, and that their pages are stuffed with keywords.(in on page grader)

I come out top in every section in Moz open site explorer, except internal links and total links.

Yet they sit at number 1, while my site is number 2,

I believe that copying their antics would surely make me fall foul of Google, and certainly would never risk it.

but with the keyword only getting 30 searches a month, are google bothered about them doing this, should I resign myself to not being number 1

and is there anyone on this Forum who believes that I should use the same tactics, to get above them.

In analysing my competitors website I have discovered that they have over 600 fake pages that appear to have been created by some sort of internal search engine software, all pages are exactly alike except for the keyword and the words "no results found" on every page. I have discovered, elsewhere, that their duplicate content is abnormally high, and that their pages are stuffed with keywords.(in on page grader)

I come out top in every section in Moz open site explorer, except internal links and total links.

Yet they sit at number 1, while my site is number 2,

I believe that copying their antics would surely make me fall foul of Google, and certainly would never risk it.

but with the keyword only getting 30 searches a month, are google bothered about them doing this, should I resign myself to not being number 1

and is there anyone on this Forum who believes that I should use the same tactics, to get above them.

Thank you all for your excellent answers

I was definitely not asking for permission. I guess I was expressing frustration and looking for answers.

I have an advantage over my competitors in that I own the copyright to everything I do so i can create content for every client, that can include, the audio track I produce for them, the lyrics of their song, possibly video, and the text telling their story. The main reason for doing this is to enable them to share it with friends and family, but I am aware that I should get an SEO bonus from it too.

The other site created another 170 fake search engine pages this month. It isn't that they don't have content at the front end of their site, but I think people will read the home page, and if they like what they see  get the phone number or fill in the contact form. I think that approach will effect their bounce rate.

My approach has been to encourage the visitors to watch a video to see a fully personalized singing telegram n action but more importantly the reactions of the people's faces. The plan is that they will stay on the site longer, and that that will eventually improve my site in Google's eyes..

I don't want to take the cheater route, even if it got me to number one.

Thanks for your replies. Much appreciated