Google's John Mueller every now and then has to respond to someone with the old saying, two wrongs don't make a right. Often enough people ask him, my competitor is doing X, which is against Google's guidelines. My competitor is ranking well, can I do that also?
It is hard, it is human nature, to see someone doing something that is wrong and even though they are getting away with it and doing well possibly by doing that wrong - you should still not do it. Just because your friend cheats on his or her test and doesn't get caught, it doesn't mean you should do it and that you won't get caught.
Here is John's response to one of these recent asks:
Is your question "others are breaking the guidelines, can I do it too?"? You're welcome to use our spam report forms, but purposely breaking the guidelines if you want something out of them seems like a bad long term strategy...
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) November 5, 2019
If you are cool with breaking the guidelines and possibly getting penalized, then sure, go for it. Otherwise, maybe play it safe.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
