help with duplicate content and geo-targeting issues

Hello,
Our client’s competitor has recently started ranking number 2 on Google for a keyword that triggers more than 21 million other results. But as this competitor is not a big and well-known brand, currently ranks better than some established brands in the industry that have always ranked well, and is using some questionable techniques, we have some concerns, and we would be grateful if you could share your opinion about this situation.
Basically, the competitor has built a main site with a branded domain name and around 200-250 secondary websites, with the domain name formula ‘keyword1-keyword2-location’. These secondary location targeted websites have very similar though not duplicate content (around 80-90% similar on average), and they differ significantly from the main website. A further issue with these secondary sites is that they all link individually to the main site. We assume, this must be why the main site is ranking so well, […]

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