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Compare and Contrast a competitor OK?

Don't want to get in trouble...

         

SEOMike

9:11 pm on May 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I'm doing some writing for a client who wants to capture some SE traffic for a competitor by using the competitor's name in his pages.

So, can I get away with...

Blah blah blah... Much like Widget's features, our program ProductName does blah blah blah...

And.

Widget has many great options, but ProductName can pick up the slack by featuring advanced features that blah blah...

Widget being the competitor name.

Or should I stay away from this type of thing altogether. I guess if MY competitor was doing this, I'd be really mad. BUT will a simple copyright symbol by the competitor's product with a disclaimer suffice?

Thanks.

bhartzer

9:30 pm on May 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You probably could get away with this, but I personally like this one:

Listing the market share of various companies in the industry. That way you can tackle a bunch of competitors all at once.

The only problem that I see is that if you list certain features then your competitor may upgrade their features, which would then cause you to upgrade your features and what you say about their products. You may get into a mini-update-war type of thing.

SEOMike

9:51 pm on May 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You may get into a mini-update-war type of thing.

Haha.... hadn't thought about that. Hmmm... I guess I'll try to keep it as vague as possible but still offer some info.

I'm afraid that if I do a long competitor list, it'll kill my KWD.

bhartzer

9:53 pm on May 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



it'll kill my KWD...

What about just the top 10? Try using a search term suggestion tool to see which competitor names are searched for more than others. Use that to narrow it down.

Rosalind

11:26 am on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member




BUT will a simple copyright symbol by the competitor's product with a disclaimer suffice?

Trademark, surely? This doesn't seem like a copyright issue at all, (unless you're copying a competitor's text and just changing the names). And it's not trademark infringement either. IANAL, but it doesn't seem to break any laws. It might provoke them and make them mad, but if they're not up for some competition they should go work for the government.

blaze

12:05 pm on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Make sure you are correct, otherwise they can sue for your libel.

SEOMike

1:58 pm on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Trademark, surely?

Yeah, that's what I meant. Oops.

Make sure you are correct, otherwise they can sue for your libel.

This project is taking a lot of time for that exact reason.

Thanks for the tips guys!

rogerd

3:42 pm on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member



You definitely want to reference ownership of any trademarks, and also cite the source for any data, e.g., "Specifications taken from 2004 Widget Annual Guide".

PCInk

4:52 pm on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Nice:

Advertise the competition for free!

(P.S. It's not would I would do!)

Use your own strengths to create content and conversion to sale, not the other businesses weaknesses. There are two ways to make yourself appear better: (1) Be better or (2) Put everyone else down. People like dealing with people in the number one category but not so much the second!

yintercept

7:02 pm on May 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Use your own strengths to create content and conversion to sale, not the other businesses weaknesses. There are two ways to make yourself appear better: (1) Be better or (2) Put everyone else down. People like dealing with people in the number one category but not so much the second!

If a web site was doing such comparisons on their splash page, then I would agree. If objective comparisons to competitors is buried deeper in the site...well, that is a different matter. It actually looks quite positive because it shows that you do market research.

Providing users with info on other products in your industry can help build trust. You are not exactly advertising the competitor. Rather you are capturing traffic interested in the industry of your competitor and just happened to be searching on their name. The key is to be objective.

I would avoid going negative. I would not place the review to prominently on the site either. You might even consider linking to your competitor. I often link to my competitors. Oddly many end up feeling compelled to link back to me.

SEOMike

2:27 pm on May 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You are not exactly advertising the competitor. Rather you are capturing traffic interested in the industry of your competitor and just happened to be searching on their name.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm not placing the product comparison on their main pages, but instead, a little deeper in the site.

Their niche is VERY technical in nature and the products they (and their competitors sell) are mostly known by name. So, instead of people searching for [super complex product function] they search for widget reporting (widget being the company name) SO, if I can attract some traffic that is looking for the product, but only knows it by proprietary name, I'm confident that I can raise sales because my client has a better product than Widget does.

(don't worry, I'm not ignoring the super technical names. They are being SEO'd too)