How We Beat Competitors Who Cheat at Local SEO (Without Cheating Back)

Why Some Businesses Stay at #1 on Google for Years (And How to Beat Them)

Founder & CEO

Ivan Vars

Published on

Jan 29, 2026

Worth repeating: You don't beat cheaters by cheating better. You beat them by refusing to quit.

Ivan here.

Got hired to rank a client in Google's top 3 with our Local Ranking System.

Three weeks in, he's at #4.

Good progress from #27. But #4 isn't what we promised.

The problem wasn't our work

Two businesses had been at #1 and #2 for seven years straight. That kind of consistency isn't normal. Markets shift. Rankings fluctuate.

But these two? Rock solid since 2017.

Took me about 20 minutes to find out why.

They were cheating. Hard.

Fake review farms. Citation spam. Backlink schemes that should have triggered Google's filters years ago.

They'd been getting away with it because Google accepted their dominance as the baseline. When you're on top that long, the algorithm assumes you belong there.

We had a choice to make

Fight fire with fire and risk everything getting nuked when Google catches on.

Or do it right and take longer.

I chose the second option.

Told the client the truth. We're on track, but beating entrenched cheaters takes three more weeks.

He agreed.

We went back to work. No shortcuts. Just the fundamentals of our Local Ranking System executed correctly.

Three weeks later, our client hit #1.

The cheaters dropped to #5 and #6.

I don't know if Google caught them or if our legitimate work just overwhelmed their fake signals. But they fell and we rose.

What this means for your business

Most local business owners assume their competition plays fair. They see someone at #1 and think that business earned it.

Sometimes that's true. Often it's not.

A lot of top-ranked businesses are legacy cheaters riding old manipulations. They stay there until someone does legitimate work to knock them off.

You have two paths.

Take shortcuts. Rank faster. Pray Google doesn't notice. Live with constant risk of losing everything overnight.

Or build it right. Take longer. Keep your rankings. Never worry about getting banned.

The first wins months. The second wins years.

Talk soon,
Vars

P.S. Want your business showing up when local customers search for services like yours? Our Local Ranking System™ guarantees to Top 3 within 90 days, or we work for free until you do. No black-hat tactics. No fake reviews.

Book a free call here.

No pressure, let's see if we are a fit.