Competitor bought brand I was promoting

[domainmadness]

I run semi-big network of affiliate sites promoting certain brands, including my own brands (so I run affiliate sites + run my own brands which are promoted on those affiliate sites, together with those brands which pay me enough). Since I manage ton of sites, not all are really up to date.

One of my competitors have bought a brand/website I used to promote on my affiliate sites, let's call it siteA.com - they are now competing with my main brands in rankings and not even offering affiliate program.

So now I have multiple reviews like myaffiliatesite.com/reviews/siteA.com/ on my websites, basically promoting my competitors brand. Links have been removed, but I believe even mentions (especiall since the brand was the website URL, including .com) from high authority/relevant sites most likely help them with rankings.

My question is - what is the best way to "steal" the value from those review URLs to my own brands? And maybe even harm their reputation?

• Should I change the review to absolute negative, include review schema and recommend my own brands at the top? Or is this still seen as mention by Google algorithms?
• Should I 301 those reviews to reviews of my own brands and delete the competitors reviews? This way, my affiliate sites wouldn't mention the competitor.
• Should I repurpose the competitor reviews, just change their brand to mine but keep the pages? Our brands have similar names.
• Some other method which would demote the competitor, and improve my own brands?

 

[HenryObi]

I run semi-big network of affiliate sites promoting certain brands, including my own brands (so I run affiliate sites + run my own brands which are promoted on those affiliate sites, together with those brands which pay me enough). Since I manage ton of sites, not all are really up to date.

One of my competitors have bought a brand/website I used to promote on my affiliate sites, let's call it siteA.com - they are now competing with my main brands in rankings and not even offering affiliate program.

So now I have multiple reviews like myaffiliatesite.com/reviews/siteA.com/ on my websites, basically promoting my competitors brand. Links have been removed, but I believe even mentions (especiall since the brand was the website URL, including .com) from high authority/relevant sites most likely help them with rankings.

My question is - what is the best way to "steal" the value from those review URLs to my own brands? And maybe even harm their reputation?

• Should I change the review to absolute negative, include review schema and recommend my own brands at the top? Or is this still seen as mention by Google algorithms?
• Should I 301 those reviews to reviews of my own brands and delete the competitors reviews? This way, my affiliate sites wouldn't mention the competitor.
• Should I repurpose the competitor reviews, just change their brand to mine but keep the pages? Our brands have similar names.
• Some other method which would demote the competitor, and improve my own brands?

I would say rewrite the review in a way that favors your own business. Removing the entire page/content may hurt your ranking, so compare it to your own offering but make yours appear like the better option. Many platforms do things like that. Semrush after buying some popular SEO blogs, replaced 'Ahrefs' with 'Semrush' in all reviews.

 

[domainmadness]

I would say rewrite the review in a way that favors your own business. Removing the entire page/content may hurt your ranking, so compare it to your own offering but make yours appear like the better option. Many platforms do things like that. Semrush after buying some popular SEO blogs, replaced 'Ahrefs' with 'Semrush' in all reviews.

This was my first thought, but I think those reviews could still be helping their SEO efforts, no? Especially since I own 15+ websites in that niche which now all have mentions of their brand - I feel like it's free promotion for them.

 

[ImShilpa]

You just need to create a highlighted section on the review page that compares both brands specifically biased towards the positives your brand offers.
Use green and red colors to highlight the positives of your brand and negatives to the other brand.

This is the beast approach just because you mentioned "steal" value.

You can also look for niche edits if there are other ranking pages for the competitor brand.

 

[domainmadness]

You just need to create a highlighted section on the review page that compares both brands specifically biased towards the positives your brand offers.
Use green and red colors to highlight the positives of your brand and negatives to the other brand.

This is the beast approach just because you mentioned "steal" value.

You can also look for niche edits if there are other ranking pages for the competitor brand.

Maybe maybe - still kind of thinking if the competitors brand will benefit (in terms of SEO as well as in terms of overall brand visibility) from such comparisons, and the most effective way would be to remove the brand completely somehow.

 

[Steptoe]

Should I repurpose the competitor reviews, just change their brand to mine but keep the pages? Our brands have similar names.

This is the route I would take. Lots of sudden 301s appearing on a site can raise some unwanted signals. Just wipe out any mention of your competitor on your sites.

 

[ImShilpa]

Maybe maybe - still kind of thinking if the competitors brand will benefit (in terms of SEO as well as in terms of overall brand visibility) from such comparisons, and the most effective way would be to remove the brand completely somehow.

But in that approach you cannot steal anything from the other brand.

 

[domainmadness]

But in that approach you cannot steal anything from the other brand.

Well, it depends.

Considering those current reviews are bringing some value for them SEO wise - changing/removing those mentions could possibly harm their brand and bring value to whatever I choose to change them.

But you are right in that I could possibly try to rank for "competitors brand review/experiences" type of keyword and then steal that traffic - but I'm currently more worried about the free SEO value I might provide for them.

Maybe I could pick the best ranking review and keep that and remove the rest?

 

[ImShilpa]

Well, it depends.

Considering those current reviews are bringing some value for them SEO wise - changing/removing those mentions could possibly harm their brand and bring value to whatever I choose to change them.

But you are right in that I could possibly try to rank for "competitors brand review/experiences" type of keyword and then steal that traffic - but I'm currently more worried about the free SEO value I might provide for them.

Maybe I could pick the best ranking review and keep that and remove the rest?

It will not harm them much if they have good quality sites linking to them unless you own a large chunk of those sites.