Competitor Analysis for Local Businesses
Local competitors are not who you think they are. The plumber down the road that you have known for ten years may not be your real digital competitor — the one outranking you in the map pack is. In 2020, with so much buying behavior shifting online, knowing who actually competes with you in search results, not just on the street, matters more than ever. Here is the framework we use for local competitor analysis.
Why does local competitor analysis matter in 2020?
Local competitor analysis matters in 2020 because the digital and physical competitor sets have diverged. Your top map pack competitor might be five miles away — not the business across the street. Your top organic competitor might be a national brand with a hyper-optimized location page. You cannot beat competitors you have not identified. The first job of any local marketing plan is figuring out who you are actually competing with.
Across our portfolio, the average small business owner could correctly name two of their top five digital competitors before we ran the analysis. The other three were surprises every time.
How do you find your real local competitors?
You find your real local competitors by running your top three to five money keywords from your customer’s typical search location and recording who appears in the map pack and the first page of organic results. The businesses that appear consistently across multiple money keywords are your real digital competitors — not the ones you guess based on intuition.
A specific workflow:
- List your 5 top money keywords (the ones tied to most revenue)
- Use an incognito browser set to your service area
- Search each keyword
- Record the top 3 map pack results and top 5 organic results
- Tally which businesses appear across multiple keywords
Any business appearing in three or more of your five searches is a real competitor. Add them to your tracking list.
What should you audit on each competitor?
You should audit each competitor across six dimensions: Google My Business completeness, review volume and recency, on-page SEO of their location pages, citation footprint, backlink profile, and content depth. A complete audit takes 45 to 90 minutes per competitor and surfaces specific tactical opportunities, not just observations.
The audit checklist we use internally:
- GMB: categories used, services listed, photo count, post frequency, Q&A activity, response rate to reviews
- Reviews: total count, average rating, monthly velocity over the past 6 months
- On-page: page titles, H1s, word count of top pages, schema usage, NAP placement
- Citations: presence on top 25 directories (Yelp, BBB, Yellow Pages, industry-specific)
- Backlinks: total referring domains, top 10 backlinks by authority
- Content: blog post count, last published date, topical focus
The point is not to copy them. The point is to find the gaps they are leaving open.
What does a competitor gap analysis look like?
A competitor gap analysis is a side-by-side scorecard showing where you and each competitor stand on every dimension that affects local ranking. The gaps that show up consistently across competitors point to industry-wide opportunities. The gaps where one competitor dominates point to specific tactics you need to match or beat.
A simplified scorecard from a real (anonymized) analysis we ran for Demo Plumbing Inc.:
| Dimension | Demo Plumbing | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMB photos | 12 | 87 | 142 | 23 |
| Reviews (12mo) | 31 | 188 | 244 | 41 |
| Avg rating | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Blog posts (12mo) | 0 | 24 | 38 | 6 |
| Location pages | 1 | 8 | 12 | 3 |
| Schema markup | Partial | Full | Full | Partial |
Demo Plumbing’s biggest gap was content (zero blog posts, one location page). That became the highest-leverage area to focus the next six months.
How do you analyze competitor keyword strategy?
You analyze competitor keyword strategy by looking at which keywords they actually rank for, which pages drive their organic traffic, and which keywords they are visibly investing in (frequent content updates, multiple pages targeting variants). Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Pro all show this data. If you do not have a paid tool, free options like Ubersuggest give you partial visibility.
The goal is not to chase every keyword your competitor ranks for. The goal is to find the cluster of keywords where they have a meaningful traffic moat and decide whether you want to attack that cluster directly or pick adjacent topics they have ignored.
How do you research competitor reviews for insight?
You research competitor reviews for insight by reading the negative reviews first. Customers tell you in negative reviews exactly what your competitor is failing at — the things you can promise and deliver to win those same customers. Positive reviews tell you what is table stakes in your category. Negative reviews tell you where the wedge is.
Across 50+ competitor review audits we have run this year, the patterns are remarkably similar by category. Home services: scheduling problems, no-shows, surprise pricing. Restaurants: slow service, wrong orders, inconsistent quality. Professional services: poor communication, missed deadlines, slow responses. If your competitor’s reviews list the same complaints repeatedly, your marketing should explicitly address those.
What about backlink analysis for local businesses?
Backlink analysis for local businesses is less critical than national SEO competitor analysis but still useful. Local link building is more about relevance than authority — a single link from your local chamber of commerce or a respected local news site often outweighs ten links from random national directories. Focus your backlink audit on the local, niche-relevant domains, not the global authority score.
The breakdown we use:
- Local government domains (.gov city pages, chamber of commerce)
- Local news outlets in your metro area
- Industry-specific directories for your category
- Local nonprofit partnerships (sponsorships, event listings)
Any backlink your competitor has from one of these and you do not — that is a target.
How often should you re-run competitor analysis?
You should re-run competitor analysis every quarter at a minimum, with a lightweight monthly check on review velocity and GMB activity. The local search landscape moves fast enough that a stale competitor audit is misleading within six months. New competitors enter, old ones drop investment, and the gap map shifts. A standing quarterly review keeps your strategy grounded in current reality.
For our local SEO clients, we build competitor monitoring into our monthly reporting so changes get flagged in close to real time. The cost of a surprise — a new competitor outranking you for two months before you notice — is much higher than the cost of monitoring.
How does this connect to broader local marketing?
Competitor analysis connects to broader local marketing as the foundation that informs everything else. Your content marketing priorities come from your competitor content gaps. Your PPC strategy should target keywords where competitors are weak organically. Your reputation management playbook should answer the complaints customers raise in competitor reviews. We work with small businesses across our service areas on competitor-informed local marketing roadmaps that compound advantage over time.
Where can you learn more about local competitor analysis?
Two resources to bookmark this year: Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors, updated annually with what actually moves local rankings, and Search Engine Land’s local coverage for ongoing tactical analysis.
FAQs
How many competitors should I track?
Three to five real digital competitors is the right number for most small businesses. Tracking more than that dilutes attention. The top three usually account for 80% of the strategic insight.
What if my biggest physical competitor doesn’t show up in search?
That is itself the insight. They may be relying entirely on word-of-mouth and not investing in digital. That makes them vulnerable, not strong. You can capture share of the customers searching online without ever directly fighting them at the storefront.
Should I look at national brands as competitors?
For most local searches, yes — national brands with location pages often appear in the map pack and organic results. They are legitimate competitors. Their weakness is usually generic content and slow responsiveness on reviews.
How long does a full competitor analysis take?
Three to five competitors at 60 minutes each, plus two to three hours of synthesis. Plan for a full work day. The output should be a written strategic memo, not a spreadsheet you never re-open.
What tools do I need to do this?
You can do a useful first pass with free tools alone: Google search itself, the GMB profiles, and a manual review of competitor websites. Paid tools (Ahrefs, SEMrush, BrightLocal) add depth on backlinks and keyword tracking but are not required for the initial audit.
If you want a competitor analysis done for you with a written gap report and prioritized tactical opportunities, request a competitor audit — we will benchmark you against your top three local rivals and show you exactly where to attack.
Why Competitor Analysis Local Matters for Your Business
The right approach to competitor analysis local is what separates the businesses that grow from those that stall. Frostbite Marketing has built competitor analysis local programs for service businesses across all 50 states, combining proven SEO fundamentals with the new realities of AI-driven search.
How Frostbite Marketing Approaches Competitor Analysis Local
Our competitor analysis local methodology starts with a free strategy call. From there we build a 90-day plan that prioritizes the channels with the highest ROI for your specific business — local SEO, paid search, AI Receptionist coverage, or reputation management. Start a free consultation to see how it works.
