How to do a competitive analysis for local SEO

When it comes to local SEO, there is a lot of noise.

From the latest industry buzz to the nuances of a specific website, a list-making guide can quickly become inundated with tasks that don’t consider the big picture.

However, none of these jobs will hurt if you ignore the competitors.

A competitive analysis for local SEO can reveal:

If you understand the effort and efficiency used by those who are well placed in the area, then you can progress even in the most competitive research environments.

Determining your local competitors

Marketers in SEO need a different approach than competitors in local markets.

In a national SEO campaign, competitors often target hundreds or thousands of keywords. At the local level, most competitors usually aim for something between 20-100 keywords.

Local SEO usually has fewer keywords because it is defined by its physical location.

Local SEO is designed to support a network of small businesses, franchises and physical products and services. Unlike national SEO, there is no SaaS or cloud-based architecture or leading national website.

Local sales, professionals and businesses that offer a service or product to customers in their community. The products and services from these businesses are limited to certain segments of their population. If a local business offers garage door repair, the demand is limited by the number of people who need garage door repair. while the garages are in the village.

Since local SEO is limited to a specific organization, finding competitors is straightforward. Identify 5-10 key topics and see who ranks first.

However, competitive analysis for local SEO can quickly become difficult when there is more than one location for the business. Each location has unique challenges.

Although local competition analysis considers a small subset of keywords, the complexity of local search affects these keywords.

3 steps to conducting a competitive analysis for local SEO

A competitive analysis for local SEO takes into account the search terms in terms of three important local factors:

1. Compare proximity

Are you located further from the city center than your main competitors? Is this information relevant to your location? After all, it’s not like you can transfer sites for the sake of SEO.

Understanding your position within the context of your competitor’s position is important because proximity can answer why they rank #1.

In the image below, a search for “kansas city defense attorney,” a highly sought after reference for defense attorneys in Kansas City, is the #1 number held by a law firm located in .2 miles from downtown Kansas City. The #2 rated business is located 3.1 miles from downtown.

A quick search for your top keyword can tell if your ad is influencing. Review the distance between the approved location and the city center for the #1 ranked GBP (a.k.a., your competitor) in Local Pack. Then, compare the distance of your competitor to the distance between your approved location and the city center.

If you are a Service Area Business (SAB), your competitors are likely to be SABs, which means you cannot check the distance between their address and city. In these scenarios, you should always note the distance between your confirmed location and the city.

If your website is struggling to achieve local growth in the future, being too close can limit progress. Sometimes your verified address will be too far from the target location in the configuration, which means you may need to change your target location.

During a competitive analysis for local SEO, a quick check of the competition is enough to understand how much distance is important in your specific market. However, you can determine from this first check that a deeper understanding of your relationship will help shape your plan.

If a more detailed proximity analysis would be helpful, consider completing a full proximity audit as the next step. For example, you can think of a perfect close test when you look at distance, GBP, and on the guide page but still can’t see why the competition is good. A close audit is an in-depth study of all the factors that influence the classification of a particular market.

2. Assess GBP optimization 

In local SEO, Google Business Profile is the star of the show. Everyone is competing for that #1-3 position in the Local Pack. Competitors often pay more attention to GBP with their local SEO strategies because this information appears right at the top of the search results.

Check out the key factors below in your competitors’ GBP list and compare your own profile:

The name, first part and reviews are seen directly on the profile, but to see a business’ additional GBP part will require a tool like GMB Anywhere. These are the main points of the Google Business Profile classification, but it is also important to look at the many competitors who have invested in additional GBP features:

If the competition is ranked only by consideration and proximity, a few changes to your GBP categories may improve your Local Pack ranking. But if the #1 competitor brand has filled their profile with all the information and they post every week, then it will take a lot of effort to increase to them.

Finally, the Google Business Profile is intended to update users with as much information about the business as possible. It’s a good idea, but informing customers about your business is a solid process in any social media.

3. Analyze on-page content

On page SEO is a very important indicator for the Local Pack. So, what does a #1 ranking competitor’s website look like? Click the Website icon directly in the Local Pack to begin.

When researching competitor websites, you will typically see two types of sites linked from GBP:

Content on a homepage is often structured differently than content on a site page:

Review your competitor’s home page or site page to see how much effort your website needs. How much has your competitor invested in their website and/or their landing page?

Here are some questions to review for a homepage or landing page linked from GBP.

These questions are not exhaustive, but they are a good starting point and can help you understand the level of investment and strategy behind the competitor’s website.

Compiling the information and looking at the big picture

You have collected information about the relationship of a competitor, GBP and the website. Now, it’s time to analyze this information and consider your local SEO strategy.

Here’s an example of what we can learn about a #1 ranked competitor for “solutions.”

In the example above of the competitive model for local SEO, we can see that our business needs a lot of improvements to compete for that #1 ranking, from updating the GBP category to the video review.

The best local SEO strategy is unique to its marketplace

That market includes competitors who have invested a different amount of quality, communication, and even physical properties. While there will always be an SEO to-do list, a competitive analysis can help determine which tasks will have the most impact.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not of Search Engine Land. Staff writers are listed here.

Harmony Huskinson is an SEO consultant at Portent, a digital marketing agency. Harmony specializes in local SEO and has worked with hundreds of businesses since starting its digital marketing career in 2015. You can find Harmony on Twitter or on LinkedIn if you want to chat about community networking and digital in local opportunities.

How do you Analyse a competitor website?

• Analyze your competitors’ website content. …
• Pay close attention to their brand. …
• Find out what online tools they are using. …
• Monitor competitors on social media. …
• See their pricing page. …
• Get a picture of their SEO strategy and traffic. …
• Become a customer.

Can I track transactions on the website? For analyzing your own website traffic, Google Analytics is the way to go. For tracking traffic on the web, however, Traffic Analytics is the best solution because it gives you high-quality data about traffic. marketing strategies you can use for your competitive analysis.

How do you audit a competitor website?

A good way to find out who your competitors are is to reverse Google search based on your offerings. Enter relevant keywords that people use to search for a business like yours (while in the Google browser) to see who is better than you. Remember to think outside the box when identifying your competitors.

What are competitive audits?

A competitive audit allows you to track your competitors, understand their approach, and find out what your brand is missing. The goal is to find what works for other companies in your industry and incorporate those strategies for your brand to gain a competitive advantage.

What is Porter’s 5 Forces analysis example?

The threat of new entrants is moderate to low. Threat of substitute products: Although companies can copy Argento’s unpatented products, the demand for high-quality athletic wear continues to grow. The risk of additional products is low. Customer buying power: Argento’s customers include both end users and wholesalers.

What is Porter’s 5 forces analysis? Porter’s five forces help to identify where there is strength in a business situation. This is useful not only in understanding the strength of an organization’s current competitive position, but also the strength of a position that an organization may see moving towards.

What is Porter’s 5 Forces example?

Examples: High entry barriers and high exit barriers (for example, communication, power) High entry barriers and exit barriers (eg, mentoring, training) Low entry barriers and high exit barriers (eg, hotels, steel mills)

What is Porter’s 5 forces analysis with example?

Porter’s Five Forces is a model that identifies and analyzes five competitive forces that shape any industry and helps determine the industry’s strengths and weaknesses. The Five Forces analysis is often used to identify the structure of an industry to determine business strategy.

Which company uses Porter’s five forces?

Porter’s Five Forces Model can be applied to Apple to understand its position in its industry and how it compares to the competition.

What is a competitive analysis grid?

Definition (1): A competitive model is a tool for organizing information that a company collects about its competitors to see if how to stack up against your competitors to get ideas for marketing to target, and, perhaps most importantly, identify your main sources of competitive advantage . Cheers.

What is the order of competitive power? Because competitive advantages are created from core assets and capabilities, you need to sit down and put together a competitive strength strategy. This scale lists all of your major competitors or fundamental groups based on their relative assets and capabilities and how your own company fits into this scale.

What is in a competitive analysis?

A competitive analysis should analyze your competitors’ profile, market share, price, market, outlook, strengths, weaknesses, geography, culture and customer reviews. right This article is for new and established small businesses that want to analyze their competition to improve their products or services.

What should a competitive analysis include?

A competitive analysis should analyze your competitors’ profile, market share, price, market, outlook, strengths, weaknesses, geography, culture and customer reviews. right

What does a competitive analysis show?

A competitive analysis, also known as a competitive analysis, is the process of identifying competitors in your industry and analyzing them. They have different marketing strategies. You can use this information as a comparison to determine your company’s strengths and weaknesses relative to each competitor.

How do you do competitor analysis in Excel?