SEO competition is one of the primary struggles of many local business owners. It becomes an even bigger problem when your efforts to overcome it do not seem to work. Could it be because you’re targeting the wrong enemy?
One thing to note is that your brick-and-mortar competitors may differ from your “real rivals” in the digital world. Try to do a quick online search using one of your target keywords. The results will likely show that your direct competitors are not the businesses near you.
Identifying your true local competitors is essential for targeting your efforts effectively. A thorough competitor analysis for local SEO should help you with this goal.
Read on to learn the steps, procedures, and helpful tools that will reveal your hidden rivals.
1. Identifying Your True Local SEO Competitors
If brick-and-mortar shops compete through in-store experience and customer service, online businesses compete through keywords.
Imagine yourself as a customer thinking of buying a new pair of shoes. Without any idea where to get one, you’ll likely go online and type in “red running shoes near me” or “black strappy heels Melbourne”.
Recent statistics show that customers nowadays find businesses or service providers closest to them. More importantly, a significant amount of these local searches turn to sales.
To enhance your SEO performance, you must use the appropriate keywords and identify the local competitors utilising the same terms.
But how do you know which keyword to use and look for?
Identify Your Localised Keywords
There are two types of keywords that matter in local SEO:
- Location-based keywords: These search terms include the product or service type plus a geographic identifier (e.g. suburb, city, state, country). Examples are “licensed electrician in Preston” or “property lawyer Victoria”.
- Near-me keywords: These search terms include the product or service type plus the phrase “near me”. Examples are “plumber near me” or “Chinese restaurant near me”.
Optimising your website with location-based and near-me keywords can help your business become more visible in the local search results. Both types aim to attract targeted traffic and customers actively searching for your products or services.
Search Your Localised Keywords on Google
Once you know the localised keywords that apply to your business, the next step is to find websites ranking for these keywords.
Here’s how to conduct your local keyword research:
- Type your keyword or keyphrase in Google (with or without your target location), then list the top-ranking sites in Google Maps.
- Repeat the process. But this time, note the top-ranking sites in the local 3-pack.
- Lastly, input your localised keyword and check which sites rank in Google’s organic results.
The image below shows the three SERP sections to look at during your local keyword research.
Make sure to note the ranking positions. Also, identify overlaps or websites that consistently rank for multiple keywords across these SERP sections.
Constant visibility in the SERPs is often a good indicator that these sites are your real local competitors.
You can perform manual analysis by setting up a Google sheet and listing all the top-ranking domains. However, that will take lots of time, especially if you want to search for hundreds or thousands of keywords.
In that case, consider using SEO tools instead to speed up your competitor research and get other valuable insights.
2. Competitor Analysis
Once you have your list of SEO competitors, the next step is to conduct an in-depth competitor analysis for local SEO. This process evaluates your competitors’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. As a business owner, your goal is to benchmark your SEO performance with theirs.
What SEO tactics can you pick up from your competitors and replicate? Are they missing out on opportunities that you can take advantage of? Which of their shortcomings can you capitalise on?
These are key points to focus on when conducting competitor analysis. Below are specific procedures to follow.
Competitor Website Analysis
One way to analyse your competitors’ performance is to examine and compare their websites with yours. Focus specifically on the following factors:
- Core web vitals: This factor measures website speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. All of these contribute to a good user experience, which is crucial in ranking. To assess, go to Google PageSpeed Insights, paste the competitor’s URL, and click Analyse.
- Content: Check your competitors’ service pages, blogs, FAQ sections, and other similar pages. Identify topics or local search terms that are missing from their site. Take this as an opportunity to fill in the gaps and provide high-quality content to customers that your competitors lack.
- On-page SEO: Review your competitors’ web pages thoroughly using SEO tools. Are the keywords strategically placed in the titles, header tags, or meta descriptions? Do they structure content well with proper headings? Are the images optimised? Are internal and external links present?
- Mobile responsiveness: You will lose a lot of traffic and potential customers if your site is not mobile-friendly. So, be sure your website is easy to navigate on mobile devices. Then, check if your competitors are doing the same using the WebPageTest.
Google Business Profile Analysis
Another way to analyse competitors is to browse the Google Business Profile (GBP) profiles dominating the local 3-pack. Then, compare these with your GBP account. Most likely, you’ll see considerable differences and opportunities for improvement.
In particular, focus on these GBP sections or features:
- Business information: check and compare for accuracy and completeness.
- Reviews: evaluate the quantity and quality of reviews and your competitors’ response rate.
- Google Posts: identify what type of posts are gaining significant engagement.
- Images and videos: check the frequency and quality of their updates.
You can see these GBP sections in the image below. Also, consider using tools like GMB Everywhere to compare and audit profiles efficiently.
Backlink Analysis
Backlinks are links from other websites linking to yours. They are crucial ranking factors because Google sees them as votes of confidence. The more reputable backlinks you have, the better your rankings will be.
You probably know all these. However, earning high-quality backlinks is as important as studying competitors’ backlink profiles.
Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help you with this. By pasting the competitors’ URLs into either tool, you can quickly get what local sites are linking back to them.
Compare them with your local backlinks in terms of quantity and quality. Find out if they have local websites that can link to your site, too. Tracing the source and quality of your competitors’ backlinks should give your linking strategy better direction and focus.
Social Media Analysis
Competition among local businesses does not stop at websites, search results, and links. If your direct competitor is active on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, conducting a social media analysis is necessary.
Popular platforms are now gateways for audience engagement and product promotion. As people spend more time on social media, many businesses also use it to drive traffic and outperform rivals.
When analysing your competitors’ social media activity, identify which platform they focus on. For example, if you are in the service-based industry, your competitors are likely using Facebook and LinkedIn more. On the other hand, e-commerce businesses might prioritise marketing their items on TikTok and Instagram.
Other important factors to review are posting frequency, content formats (e.g. videos, infographics), social shares, and audience interaction.
Social media analysis tools like Sprout Social, BuzzSumo, and Hootsuite can also help save time and give you helpful data across different platforms.
3. Leveraging Competitor Analysis for Local SEO Success
After studying your competitors’ performance, the final output should be a list of strategies to improve your local SEO efforts.
Remember that competitor analysis is not copying SEO tactics to a tee. It’s about picking out ideas relevant to your business and transforming them to fit you.
These suggestions can assist you in maximising the impact of your analysis efforts and findings.
a. Do a Keyword and Content Gap Analysis
One of the reasons why competitors are beating your local business is because they are ranking for keywords that you are not. Moreover, they are reinforcing these keywords with high-quality content.
Change this by doing a keyword gap analysis. SEMrush’s Keyword Gap tool makes this step easy. Just paste the URL of up to four competitors, then click Compare. The results should show your best keyword opportunities.
Afterwards, your next step is to use these keywords to:
- create new pages on your website
- refresh existing, thin, or outdated content
- publish better content than your competitors
SEMrush’s SERP Gap Analyzer is another helpful tool for spotting weak or decaying content.
b. Refine Your Local SEO Strategy
Here’s a checklist of extra steps to add to your local SEO plan to boost rankings and online visibility.
Optimise your Google Business Profile
- Complete your business listing information: provide other helpful details like categories, attributes, and descriptions.
- Manage customer feedback: professionally respond to negative and positive reviews to enhance your online reputation.
- Update your GBP profile: add fresh images, videos, or posts to boost interest and engagement.
- Go beyond basic optimisation: implement advanced GBP strategies to beat competitors.
Improve your website
- Implement technical SEO improvements: optimise your website’s speed, mobile readiness, and backlink profile.
- Create a positive user experience: ensure easy web navigation, implement clear calls to action, and make your site more visually appealing.
Boost your social media activity
- Elevate and diversify your content strategy: post eye-catching visuals, interesting captions, informative text, or storytelling videos to capture a wider audience.
- Keep your target customers engaged: run polls, post questions, or host contests based on your followers’ interests, encouraging them to comment, interact, or share info.
- Manage social media postings: publish posts according to the audience’s active times to ensure maximum engagement and timely response to comments.
- Leverage unique selling points: establish a defined branding and personality, focus on niche expertise, or collaborate with other brands or influencers to widen your reach.
c. Perform Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation
Identifying and analysing your real competitors is not a one-time activity. Remember, new businesses will come, and existing rivals will implement new tactics to stay on top.
Your business environment constantly evolves. If you beat your strongest rivals today, things may change in a few months. That means regular competitor analysis is necessary.
You might be asking, how often should I perform a local SEO competitor analysis?
Conducting a monthly competitor analysis is good practice. However, it also depends on factors like the number of competitors, the size of your niche, the level of competitor activity, or the frequency of algorithm updates.
Still, regardless of the factors affecting your business, tracking your competitors and improving your local SEO should be a habit.
Doing competitive analysis for the first time may seem like a lot of work. However, the process becomes easier and faster over time. Also, keep yourself on top of things with tools like:
- Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance and proactively resolve issues
- Business Profile Performance to track customer interaction with your GBP profile
- SEMrush, Ahrefs, and other similar tools to check competitors’ backlink profiles, keyword rankings, and on-page optimisation
Conclusion
Learning how to conduct competitor analysis for local SEO is vital to your business success. Aside from revealing your true rivals, this process helps you objectively refine your local SEO strategies.
However, doing a competitor analysis once is not good enough. Regularly analysing your rivals and enhancing your SEO strategies is essential for staying ahead of the competition.
So, keep analysing and optimising! Don’t let competitors outshine you. Better yet, find a trustworthy SEO agency to keep you agile in the dynamic local SEO landscape.
