competitor stealing keyword content....

[mktgbill]

We have a competitor that this week posted a block of text to the very top of their main index page which is identical to our site's keyword meta data - with the addition of 4 words. Otherwise it's out content!

Do we have a case to get them to remove it?

This is not simply a case of a few words, I'm talking about 50 words. The order is identical with the exception of the 4 they added (who's punctuation and capitalization are different).

Additionally as a block of text at the top of the page it's spammy so I've reported them to the search engines with the hope they'll be dropped too.

Does anyone else have experience dealing with this?

Thanks,
mktgbill

[timmathews.com]

Not a chance man.
Your efforts are pointless. They use the same kw as you, so what?
Learn to be better than them, optimize and market your pages properly, continuously get quality back links and you should do well.

[wonderbaum]

I have competitors that steal content as well but I don't bother going after them. Hopefully they'll suffer from duplicate content but if not... well I'll just have to perform even better ;)

[amar]

Don't worry about your competitors. Build your site for visitors as per search engine guidelines.

[prathap75]

Why to bother about others when you know the trick of the trade ?? Try to get some quality link backs and also go for Directory Submissions and the visibility of your site on the Net increases.

[meinking22]

We have a competitor that this week posted a block of text to the very top of their main index page which is identical to our site's keyword meta data - with the addition of 4 words. Otherwise it's out content!

Do we have a case to get them to remove it?

This is not simply a case of a few words, I'm talking about 50 words. The order is identical with the exception of the 4 they added (who's punctuation and capitalization are different).

Additionally as a block of text at the top of the page it's spammy so I've reported them to the search engines with the hope they'll be dropped too.

50 words is hardly what I think the SEs would consider duplicate content. Additionally, you are talking about keywords in the meta which are free to everyone to rip off and use in whatever way they see fit.

Keep in mind though that on-page optimization is limited in its SERP reach. On-Page factors are very important for getting you indexed properly, but it's your off-page optimization that will make the real difference in your ranking. Yes, with the right tools, your competition could copy your off-page SEO too. However, if they are copying 50 words, pasting those words to their home page and expecting a big change in the SERPs, then your SEO success is pretty secure and you don't need to sweat it.

Steve