Just need to vent and maybe get some advice. I run an appliance repair business, been grinding for 4 years doing everything "right" according to SEO guides:
Unique content for each service page
Proper schema markup
Google Business Profile fully optimized
Building real local backlinks
Getting tons of genuine 5-star reviews
NAP consistency everywhere
Then I discover this competitor who's straight up DOMINATING every city in our state with clearly auto-generated pages. Like literally 1000+ pages following the same template:
/service-city-state
/appliance-repair-[city]-[state]
/emergency-repair-[city]-[state]
The worst part? Their content is basically identical for every city, just swapping city names. No unique info, no real value, just mass-produced BS. And Google LOVES it! They're ranking top 3 for every damn city.
Meanwhile, I'm here spending weeks writing unique content for each location, doing proper competitor and demographic research, adding actual local information... for what?
I checked in ahrefs - they built these pages 6 months ago and have been crushing it since. Same DA as me, similar backlink profile.
Am I missing something? Should I just give up and do what they're doing? Seems like Google rewards this crap while punishing those who follow their guidelines.
What would you do in my position? Keep grinding the "right" way or switch to mass location pages?