Local SEO competitor analysis: see who wins your suburb and why

Why a local competitor analysis isn't the usual SEO version

Most SEO competitor analysis compares websites. A local one compares businesses across a whole results page, because a search like "electrician Buderim" can show a map, a few organic links, an AI summary and ads, and a different business can win each one.

The guides that rank for this topic mostly describe the website version: pick a few rival domains, run them through a paid tool, compare keywords and backlinks, then write more content. That's useful for a national online shop. It misses most of what decides whether a plumber or electrician gets the call, because the first thing many people see on a local search is a map with a short list of businesses on it, and that list isn't chosen the way organic links are.

Google is plain about how the map side works. Its help on how local results are ranked says they're mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity. Relevance is how well a profile matches the search. Distance is how far each business is from the customer who's searching, and if that person doesn't share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location. That's why this guide has you run each search from inside the suburb you care about, or at least note where you searched from. And Google says how well known a business is depends partly on how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. The same page says there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

So the honest question isn't "how do I beat this website". It's "for this job, in this suburb, who shows up where, and what do they have that I don't?" Some of the answer you can change (categories, reviews, pages, ads). Some you can't, like where your base is. A good analysis separates the two, so you stop worrying about the second kind.

Step 1: choose the searches and the suburbs to check

Start with five to ten searches that bring you paying work, each paired with a suburb you actually want jobs in. That short list is the whole frame for the analysis, so pick it before you look at a single rival.

A money search is one where the person searching wants to hire someone. "Switchboard upgrade Maroochydore" is a money search. "How does a safety switch work" usually isn't. Write each search the way a customer would type it, and add the suburb or town they'd use. If you've already done local keyword research, take the list from there rather than guessing.

Your own Search Console data is the other good starting point. The Performance report shows the searches your site already appears for, with clicks, impressions and average position, and you can switch between queries, pages, countries and devices. A search where you get impressions but sit low on the page is often the most useful one to analyse, because you're already in the conversation. Our Google Search Console guide walks through finding those searches.

Where you search from matters. Because distance is part of local ranking, the map you see from your workshop can differ from what a customer sees across town. Do the searches on a phone, in a private browser window, and either search from inside the suburb or write down where you were. Note the date too. Results move, and you'll want to compare like with like when you run it again.

1. List the services that pay the bills, not every service you offer.
2. Pair each with one to three suburbs or towns where you want more of that work.
3. Write each search in customer words, such as "emergency plumber Caloundra".
4. Add any search from Search Console that shows impressions but few clicks.
5. Run each search on a phone in a private window, and note the place and date.
6. Take a screenshot of each full results page before you start recording.

Step 2: record who holds the map pack and why they're there

For each search, write down every business in the map pack and, for each one, three things: the category label Google shows, the number of reviews, and how recent the newest reviews are. Those three columns explain a surprising amount of who wins.

Categories come first because Google says they matter directly. Its help on Business Profile categories says the categories you select affect your local ranking, and that you should pick a primary category that describes the business as specifically as the list allows, with a few extra categories for departments or services rather than one for every product. Google also says categories may be used to assign the label people see on a profile. So when a rival ranks for "switchboard upgrade" and you don't, check whether their label is a closer match to the search than yours.

Reviews are the second column. Google's ranking help says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. Count them, but also open the reviews, sort by newest and note when the last few came in. A rival with fewer reviews that arrive every week tells a different story from one with a big total and nothing new for a year. Read what customers mention, too. Reviews that name the job and the suburb tell you what that business is known for.

Then look at the name. Google's guidelines say a profile name should reflect the business's real-world name, and adding extra information such as service descriptions or locations isn't allowed and can lead to suspension. If a rival's name reads "Smith Electrical Emergency Electrician Buderim", note it, but don't copy it. You'd be taking on a suspension risk to chase an advantage Google may remove at any time.

Finally, note how far each business is from the suburb you searched. If every map pack business for "plumber Peregian Beach" is based within a few minutes of it and you're forty minutes away, that's distance at work, and no amount of profile work fully changes it. That finding is still useful. It tells you that suburb is a job for your website pages and maybe ads, not your profile alone. Our guide on how to rank on Google Maps covers the levers you do control.

• Business name exactly as shown, and whether it carries extra keywords
• Category label shown on the profile
• Total reviews, the star rating and the date of the newest three reviews
• Whether the owner replies to reviews
• Rough distance from the suburb you searched
• Whether the profile links to a page about this service, or just the homepage

Step 3: check whether rivals have a real page for that job and suburb

Below the map, look at the organic links and ask one question of each local rival: do they have a page about this exact service in or near this suburb, and is it genuinely useful? Often the business that wins organically is the one that bothered to write that page well.

Click through to each rival page and judge it the way a customer would. Does it explain the job, the likely steps, what affects the time it takes, and anything specific to the area, such as older homes, coastal conditions or local council rules? Does it show real photos and a clear way to get in touch? Or is it a short paragraph with the suburb name swapped in? Note which pages are which. A rival with a thin page is beatable. A rival with a strong page shows you the standard you'll have to meet.

Be careful what you learn from rivals with dozens of near-identical suburb pages. Google's spam policies describe doorway abuse as pages created to rank for similar searches that lead people to pages that aren't as useful as the final destination, and give the example of pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. They also describe scaled content abuse: many pages generated mainly to manipulate rankings with little value for users. A rival getting away with this today isn't a plan to copy. Our guide to local landing pages explains when a suburb page deserves to exist.

Note the basics on each rival page as well: whether the page title names the service and place, whether the main heading matches the search, and whether the page links to related services. You don't need a tool for this. View the page, read the browser tab, and scroll. The on-page SEO guide for service pages lists what a strong page usually has.

Step 4: see who AI answers name, and what rivals' ads say

Two more parts of the page complete the picture: any AI answer at the top, and the ads. For each search, record which businesses or pages the AI answer names, then look up each rival's ads in Google's Ads Transparency Centre.

Start with AI. Not every search shows an AI Overview, and Google says they appear when its systems judge them useful on top of the normal results. When one does appear, note which businesses it names and which pages it links as sources. Google's guidance on AI features and your website says a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to be a supporting link, and that there are no extra technical requirements or special optimisations needed. In plain terms, the pages AI answers lean on are usually pages that would already do well in normal search. If a rival keeps getting named, look at what their linked page says that yours doesn't.

One search on one day only tells you so much about AI answers, because they can change between runs. If you want to track rivals in AI answers over time, our guide on comparing AI visibility reports explains how to make two reports comparable. For this analysis, a single snapshot noted in the table is enough.

Then the ads. Google describes the Ads Transparency Centre as a searchable repository of advertisers and the ads they've served. You search by advertiser or website name and can filter by date and targeted location, and advertisers who've completed verification carry a verified badge. For a local rival, read what their ads lead with: speed, price wording, a service you don't mention, or a suburb list. That's what they think wins the click. Our Ads Transparency Centre guide walks through the search and what the tool can't show.

At the time of writing (October 2026) both of these products are changing quickly, so treat what you record as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent fact.

• Does an AI answer appear for this search? Yes or no, with the date.
• Which businesses does it name, and in what order?
• Which pages does it link as sources, and are any of them yours?
• Which rivals have ads on this search, and are they verified advertisers?
• What does each ad promise first, and which suburbs or services does it name?

Step 5: build the one-page gap table (a worked Sunshine Coast example)

Put every search in a row and every finding in a column, then add one final column: the gap. The table fits on one page, and the gap column becomes your to-do list.

Here's a hypothetical example. Imagine a two-van electrical business based in Kunda Park that wants more switchboard and safety switch work across the Sunshine Coast. The owner runs four searches on a phone one Tuesday morning, from inside each suburb, and fills in the table below. The businesses are made up and labelled Rival A, B and C, and the findings are invented to show the method, not to describe any real business.

Read across each row and the pattern shows. In Buderim the owner is close enough to compete, and the gap is the profile and a page, which are both fixable. In Peregian Beach the gap is mostly distance, so a page and ads make more sense than more profile work. In Maroochydore the rival's ads lead with same-day callouts, which tells the owner what customers there seem to respond to. None of this promises the owner a place in the map pack. It just stops them spending effort where it can't help.

Turn the gaps into a priority list, and what not to copy

Sort the gap column by two questions: is it something you control, and is the work worth winning? Fix the controllable gaps on your highest-paying searches first, and drop the rest.

Profile fixes usually come first because they're quick: a more accurate primary category, the right extra categories, correct hours and a profile that links to the matching service page. Our Google Business Profile checklist covers each one. Reviews come next, because they build slowly and steadily asking every customer beats a burst. Then pages, which take longer but keep working. If the table throws up more page ideas than you can write, our guide on how to prioritise the next 50 pages helps you order them.

Some things a rival does are worth knowing about and not worth copying. Google's Maps user content policy bans content that isn't based on a real experience, posting on a competitor's listing to undermine it, offering incentives in exchange for reviews, and selectively asking only happy customers for reviews. If you believe a rival's reviews break Google's content policies, Google lets you flag a review rather than respond in kind. And remember Google's own line: there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Run the analysis again every few months, or whenever the phone goes quiet on a service that used to be busy. Use the same searches, the same places and the same table, so the changes you see are real changes in the results rather than changes in how you looked.

1. Fix profile gaps you control: category, hours, services and the link to each service page.
2. Ask every customer for a review at the same point in the job, and reply to them.
3. Write a genuine page for each money search where rivals win with a better page.
4. Use ads, or not, for suburbs where distance keeps you out of the map.
5. Leave alone what you can't change, and stop measuring yourself against it.
6. Re-run the same table in three months and compare row by row.