Competitor built a clone site of his, is this ethical?

clone sites

[halcyonlost]

I found that one of my competitors built a clone of their current site.

They have a new domain, changed the colors of layout, changed e-mail, but everything else is the same from their first site. They are slowly starting to move up in the SERP and before long, will out rank me on some keywords. Is this ethical?

I mean, if it works for them, whats to stop them from making hundreds of clone sites and flooding the SERPS? I could do the same, but I see this as unethical.

Also, what can be done about this, if anything. Has anyone had a similar problems in the past?

[trillianjedi]

Ethics and marketing frequently will not see eye to eye ;)

Stick to what you do. Just because a competitor is doing something, doesn't automatically follow that you should copy.

If you can't outrank a clone, then to be honest I would start examing your overall SEM strategy. It's more indicative that you're doing something wrong, than indicative that they're doing something right.

TJ

[halcyonlost]

Agreed.

I know I am doing something wrong, aside from the fact that I don't have the capital to hire an SEO company as they have.

However, I also wanted to ask do SE's pick up on this?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

If the content of both sites is identical then they could get hit with a duplicate content penalty. However the fact that they are using this tactic suggests that they know what they are doing so they will probably be smart enough to change the content.

Regarding the ethics of the situation, I don't think what they are doing is unique. ;)