Local SEO competition is fundamentaLocal SEOrent from national organic competition. Your competitors are the businesses that appear in the local pack and local organic results for your target queries in your specific geographic area. They may not be the biggest brands in your industry — they are the businesses that have optimized best for your local market. Understanding exactly what they are doing right reveals the specific gaps you need to fill to overtake them.
Identifying Your Real Local Competitors
Your business competitors and your SEO competitors are not always the same. Search for your most important service-plus-location queries and document which businesses consistently appear in the local pack and top organic results. These are your SEO competitors, and some of them may be businesses you have never heard of. Also check Google Maps for your primary categories to see who dominates the map results.
- Search 15 to 20 of your highest-value local queries and record which businesses appear repeatedly
- Check Google Maps for each of your GBP categories in your service area
- Use Ahrefs or
Identify businesses that rank in both the local pack and organic results — they are your strongest competitors
Note any national brands or aggregator sites that appear alongside local businesses
GBP Profile Comparison
Pull up each competitor's Google Business Profile and document everything: primary and secondary categories, business description, number of reviews, average rating, review response rate, posting frequency, photo count, and listed services. This gives you a feature-by-feature comparison of how your profile stacks up and where the gaps are.
Key Insight
The single most common gap we find in local competitor analysis is category selection. Competitors often use more specific or additional secondary categories that you have not claimed. Adding a relevant secondary category can immediately improve your visibility for related queries.
Website Content Analysis
Review competitor websites with an SEO lens. Document their site structure, the number and types of local landing pages, their content depth on key service topics, and their internal linking architecture. Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify which pages earn the most organic traffic and which keywords they rank for that you do not. This keyword gap is your content creation roadmap.
Content Gap Identification
Export the full keyword list for each competitor and compare it to yours. Keywords where competitors rank in positions 1 through 20 but you do not rank at all represent content gaps — queries with proven local search demand that you are not addressing. Prioritize gaps by search volume and commercial relevance, then create content to fill them.
Backlink Profile Comparison
Analyze competitor backlink profiles to identify local link opportunities. Look for local directories, industry associations, community organizations, and local media sites that link to competitors but not to you. These are the most actionable link opportunities because the linking sites have already demonstrated willingness to link to local businesses in your space.
Review Profile Analysis
Compare review counts, average ratings, review recency, and review content across competitors. Identify competitors with significantly more reviews or higher ratings and analyze their review generation approach. Look for patterns in review content — do their reviews frequently mention specific services or qualities? This reveals what customers in your market value most and what messaging resonates.
Pro TipCreate a competitor tracking dashboard that you update monthly. Track key metrics for your top five local competitors alongside your own. Trend data over time reveals who is investing in local SEO and who is stagnant — helping you anticipate competitive moves.
Turning Analysis into Action
Prioritize competitive gaps by impact potential and effort required. Quick wins like adding missing GBP categories or claiming unclaimed directory listings should happen immediately. Medium-term wins like creating content to fill keyword gaps should be prioritized in your content calendar. Long-term investments like building a review generation program or pursuing local should be integrated into your ongoing strategy.
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