my competitors are kicking my ass

Hi guys
I posted about this a while ago. I didn't receive any helpful replies, probably because I didn't provide enough details.

Well here is the situation: since 2010, I have been working on this site of mine. It's a services site. Before February of this year, I was doing "ok". about 40 visitors a day, maybe 1 or 2 orders a day. I did only seo, no ppc.

There was this competitor whose prices were much lower than me, and they did ppc. They came up for every single keyword that I was targeting, and always always on the very top of the page. They ppc campaign was excellent. I lost a lot of business to them because they prices were much lower than mine, and the reason that they could offer lower prices is because their quality sucks, they cheat people and laugh all the way to the bank.

I used to get SOME clients. But then what I call "the tragedy" happened: they started showing 5 stars in their ads. They have like 400 completely fake reviews. as a result of this, traffic to my site basically died. Those damn stars are too noticeable. When somebody sees them on the top of the page, they will click immediately and won't bother going to other sites.

So now my site is basically dead. I get maybe one call a day, and that will be some cheap asshole who's comparing 500 sites to find the absolute lowest price. most days I dont get any calls at all. I have installed authorship which has helped a little, but not in a significant way.

Thanks for reading so far. Now my question: how do I compete? any suggestions are welcome, from the most innocent to the most evil.

Add stars to your site? Do PPC?

If they're doing so well and your product/service is better than copy their marketing strategy and you'll beat them.

If you can't beat em, join em.

If that's not an option, lower your prices and mimic what they do but with your own little twist. Then get on a strong SEO campaign to push your site to the top.

You can add the stars too your website SERP results with a simple code. Be careful though i think Google will realize that hey are fake reviews and tank rankings...maybe not

Lol from the most innocent to the most evil huh?

In all seriousness, I'm not sure what you can do - it might help to know your niche, but I understand if you are reluctant to share it. Perhaps you could set up your own review site for the stuff - speak to the people in your niche who run blogs who have "authority", and get them to write an expose. If people really are getting ripped off, there's gotta be some kind of ripoff report for it somewhere. Or maybe go and buy their stuff, record their communication with you and hope to catch them in some kind of fraud.

I would make sure you mention that you get what you pay for. Make sure that if people go to your site, they know that you have a quality product, unlike the other guy...

People are not dumb, they know that cheap stuff is going to be worse... You need to make the WANT to get the better quality.

Without knowing your product I could not give you a direct example, but you need to make it obvious that your product is worth paying more for.

First, lower your prices and offer quality services. They provide suck services right? Offer it and just add "addons" to your services.

You will have a cheap basic services but with quality, If you deliver it ask the client if they want to have "addons" services.

Second, If you cant do PPC, just push your rankings to number 1..

Build a good relationship with customers, recurring payments is the best solution rather new customers every month.


EDIT: I think i overlooked your thread, I thought you are selling SEO Services.. @_@

Instead of trying to salvage the pieces of your once thriving business,I would apply what you did currently to a different niche.

Just be like naruto dude, Don't give up until he becomes hokage lol. Right! PPC is always spending money but if you're a good seo expert outrank his keywords (y)

Us schema to add the stars to your serp results.

1. Lower your prices
2. Try to pull back competitors by posting negative reviews and something like that.
3. Do PPC and have good on-page optimization as well as website structure.
4. Make an Controversy between you and your competitors.

" my competitors are kicking my ass " At least you're man enough to admit it. : )

You said service business, so most likely local. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you rank under him, you should start ppc(hyper responsive keywords), get in the box on top.
You're click thru rate will be way better than right side.

Once you start getting some calls, definitely focus on value.
But...to get some business, beat him at his own game of price, if you can.

Get your old customer to write you reviews, just ask them, they'll do it...
as long as they are happy with your service. Or, offer them some incentive.
While doing this, start pushing SEO too.

However, don't just rely on Search traffic. That's just small percentage of the pond.
There are tons other ways to get customers.

If you need help with PPC, hit me up.

Use PPC and other strong SEO strategies to get your site to the top rank, in other words use their marketing strategy for your own benefit....