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By Brian Hunter · Founder, Hunter Creative Media & Design

Most local businesses have a general sense of who their competitors are. The HVAC company across town, the dentist with the big billboard, the restaurant that always seems full. But when it comes to local SEO, your real competitors might not be who you think.

The businesses you compete with in real life aren’t always the ones you’re competing with in search results. And understanding who’s actually taking your rankings, and why, is the foundation of a strategy that works. Anyone starting from scratch will get more out of a full walkthrough of local SEO from the ground up.

We use competitor analysis as the starting point for every local SEO engagement. Not because it’s trendy, but because it prevents the most expensive mistake in SEO: guessing.

Identifying Your Real Local SEO Competitors

Here’s where most businesses get it wrong. They assume their offline competitors are their online competitors. Sometimes they overlap. Often they don’t.

Your local SEO competitors are the businesses that rank in the top positions for the keywords you want to rank for. To find them:

Search your target keywords in Google:

  • Open an incognito window (or use a location simulator to search from your service area)
  • Search your primary service + location combinations: “plumber Edwardsville IL,” “family dentist Glen Carbon,” “Italian restaurant downtown Belleville”
  • Note which businesses appear in the map pack (the local 3-pack) and in the top organic results
  • Do this for 10-15 of your most important keyword variations

What you’ll likely discover:

  • Some competitors appear for nearly every search: these are your primary SEO competitors
  • Some businesses you’ve never heard of rank well because they’ve invested in their online presence
  • Some of your biggest “real world” competitors have terrible online visibility
  • National or regional chains sometimes occupy spots that local businesses could take
  • Directory sites (Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack) may rank for your keywords, acting as indirect competitors

Build a competitor shortlist of 3-5 businesses that consistently appear in the positions you want. These are the benchmarks for your strategy.

Tools for Local Competitor Analysis

You don’t need expensive enterprise tools to do useful competitor analysis, but the right tools save significant time.

Free and Low-Cost Options

  • Google Search (incognito): The most fundamental tool. Search your keywords and see who ranks. Simple, direct, free.
  • Google Business Profile: Visit competitor GBPs directly. Note their categories, photos, post frequency, review count, and Q&A.
  • Google Keyword Planner: Free with a Google Ads account. Shows search volume for local keywords and suggests related terms.
  • Google Search Console: Your own data showing which queries you appear for and your average position, useful for identifying where competitors are beating you.
  • Chrome extensions (SEOquake, MozBar): Quick domain authority and on-page SEO checks while browsing competitor sites.

Paid Tools Worth the Investment

  • Semrush: Local SEO toolkit includes position tracking, competitor keyword gaps, backlink analysis, and listing management. Their “Keyword Gap” tool is particularly valuable for finding terms competitors rank for that you don’t.
  • Ahrefs: Excellent for backlink analysis and content gap identification. Their Site Explorer shows you every keyword a competitor ranks for and every site linking to them.
  • BrightLocal: Purpose-built for local SEO. Tracks local pack rankings, audits citations, monitors reviews, and provides local search grid reports showing visibility across your service area.
  • SpyFu: Shows competitor paid and organic keyword histories. Useful for seeing what keywords they’ve targeted over time and where they’ve gained or lost ground.

For most local businesses, we start with manual Google research and BrightLocal, then layer in Semrush or Ahrefs for deeper analysis when the budget allows.

Tracking rankings and reviews over time is how local SEO compounds.
Tracking rankings and reviews over time is how local SEO compounds.

What to Analyze About Your Competitors

Their Keywords

Understanding which keywords your competitors target (and rank for) reveals what’s working in your market.

What to look for
The specific service + location combinations they target on their pages. Their page titles, H1 headings, and URL structures tell you their keyword strategy.
How to find it
Use Semrush or Ahrefs to pull their organic keyword list, or manually review their page titles and content.
What it tells you
Which keywords are realistic targets for your market, which terms have enough search volume to pursue, and which keywords no one in your market is targeting well (opportunities).

Their Content

Content depth is a ranking factor that’s easy to benchmark against competitors.

  • How many service pages do they have? Are they targeting each service individually or lumping everything together?
  • Do they have location-specific pages for each area they serve?
  • How active is their blog? What topics do they cover?
  • How long and detailed is their content compared to yours?
  • Do they have FAQ sections, guides, or resources that earn links and engagement?

When we analyze competitor content for a local electrician, for example, and find that the top-ranking competitor has 15 detailed service pages while our client has 3, that content gap becomes a clear priority.

Their Backlink Profiles

Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals. Analyzing where competitors get their links reveals opportunities you can pursue.

  • Local links: Chamber of Commerce, local business associations, sponsorships, local news mentions
  • Industry links: Trade associations, manufacturer directories, industry publications
  • Content-earned links: Blog posts, guides, or tools that other sites link to
  • Directory links: Which directories are they listed in that you’re not?

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to export a competitor’s backlink list. Filter for local and relevant links. Many of these same opportunities are available to you. You just need to know they exist.

Their Reviews

Reviews are both a ranking factor and a trust factor. Benchmark your competitors on:

  • Total review count on Google (and Yelp, Facebook, industry-specific platforms)
  • Average star rating
  • Review velocity: How many new reviews per month are they getting?
  • Response rate: Do they respond to all reviews?
  • Review content: What do customers mention? This reveals their strengths and weaknesses from the customer’s perspective.

If the top-ranked competitor has 200 reviews with a 4.7 average and you have 30 reviews with a 4.5 average, you know reviews need to be a strategic priority.

Their GBP Optimization

Visit each competitor’s Google Business Profile and evaluate:

  • Categories: What primary and secondary categories do they use? This directly impacts which searches they appear for.
  • Photos: How many photos do they have? What quality? How recent?
  • Posts: How frequently do they publish Google Posts? What content works?
  • Attributes: Which attributes do they highlight?
  • Description: How do they use their 750 characters?
  • Q&A: Have they seeded questions and answers?

Their Schema Implementation

Check competitors’ structured data using Google’s Rich Results Test or Schema Markup Validator:

  • Do they implement LocalBusiness schema?
  • Are they using Service, FAQ, or Review schema?
  • Is their schema error-free?
  • Do they get rich results (stars, FAQ dropdowns) in search?

If competitors are implementing schema and you’re not, you’re at a tactical disadvantage. If none of them are doing it, that’s a quick win.

Finding Gaps and Opportunities

Competitor analysis isn’t about copying what others do. It’s about finding what they don’t do (or don’t do well) and exploiting those gaps.

Keyword Gaps

Run a keyword gap analysis (Semrush’s “Keyword Gap” tool makes this easy) to find:

  • Keywords competitors rank for that you don’t: These are proven opportunities in your market
  • Keywords you rank for that competitors don’t: Protect these advantages
  • Keywords no one in your market targets well: Low-competition opportunities that may have decent search volume

Content Gaps

Look for services or topics that competitors haven’t covered in depth:

  • Service areas they haven’t built dedicated pages for
  • Common customer questions no competitor has answered with content
  • Related topics that could attract links and traffic (guides, local resources, educational content)

Technical Gaps

If competitor sites are slow, not mobile-friendly, or lack HTTPS, these are technical advantages you can gain quickly. A faster, more modern site with better UX creates a ranking opportunity.

Review Gaps

If competitors have weak review profiles (few reviews, poor ratings, no responses), an aggressive review strategy gives you an outsized advantage.

Local Link Gaps

Identify local organizations, events, and publications that link to competitors but not to you. Many of these links are available simply by joining the organization, sponsoring the event, or reaching out to the publication.

Building a Strategy Based on Competitive Intelligence

Once the analysis is complete, we build a prioritized strategy:

Quick Wins (1-4 weeks)

  • Claim and optimize GBP to match or exceed the best competitor profile
  • Fix citation inconsistencies
  • Implement schema markup if competitors have it (or even if they don’t)
  • Match competitor category selections in GBP
  • Start responding to every review

Medium-Term Priorities (1-3 months)

  • Build out service pages to match or exceed competitor content depth
  • Create location pages for service areas competitors are targeting
  • Pursue local backlink opportunities identified in competitor profiles
  • Launch a structured review generation campaign
  • Begin targeting keyword gaps with new content

Long-Term Investments (3-12 months)

  • Develop a content strategy targeting topics competitors haven’t covered
  • Build thought leadership content that earns natural backlinks
  • Create resources or tools that become the local authority in your industry
  • Expand into new keyword territories as you gain domain authority

Ongoing Monitoring

Competitor analysis isn’t a one-time project. Local markets shift. New competitors emerge. Rankings fluctuate.

We recommend:

Monthly
Check map pack rankings for your primary keywords. Note any new competitors appearing.
Quarterly
Re-run competitor review count and rating comparisons. Review their content additions.
Bi-annually
Full competitor backlink analysis and keyword gap refresh.
Ongoing
Set Google Alerts for competitor brand names and monitor their Google Posts for strategic shifts.

Tracking tools like BrightLocal or Semrush automate much of this, sending alerts when competitors gain or lose rankings, get new reviews, or acquire new backlinks.

Realistic Expectations

Competitor analysis gives you a roadmap, not a shortcut. A few honest truths:

  • If a competitor has 10 years of content and 500 backlinks, you won’t overtake them in 3 months
  • Local SEO improvements typically show measurable results in 3-6 months
  • Some keywords are dominated by aggregators (Yelp, Angi) and may never be realistic targets for organic results. Focus on the map pack instead
  • The competitor with the best rankings isn’t always doing everything right. Sometimes they’re just the least bad option, and that’s actually great news for you
  • Consistency beats intensity: steady monthly effort outperforms sporadic campaigns every time

The businesses that win at local SEO aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who understand their competitive landscape and systematically close the gaps.

Keep Reading

Standing out locally starts with knowing what everyone else looks like. See how we designed Angie Daniels’ real estate site to outclass her market in the case study.

About the Author

Brian Hunter is the founder of Hunter Creative Media & Design, an Aurora, IL studio building hand-coded websites and custom web applications for small businesses across Chicago’s western suburbs. He writes about web performance, local SEO, and the software that runs small businesses. Get in touch.