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Your competitors' GBP profiles are an open book, and most businesses never read them.
If you want to rank higher on Google Maps, start by studying the businesses that already do.
A competitor GBP audit takes about 30 minutes. It tells you exactly what the top-ranking businesses in your category are doing that you're not, and where their weaknesses are that you can exploit.
Quick answer: Find your competitors first, search your primary keyword in Google Maps and note who appears in the local pack plus positions 4-10, then audit their GBP field by field, look for review, content, category, and photo gaps, and build a prioritized action plan from what you find.
If this comes up for you, we cover it in more detail in our piece on when a direct competitor opens nearby.
Here's the full process.
The fastest way to find your competitors is to search your primary keyword the way a customer would, in Google Maps for local businesses, in regular Google search for a website-only competitor, and note who actually shows up rather than who you assume is competing with you.
For a local business, that means searching "[your service] [your city]" or "[your service] near me" from your actual business location, since results shift based on searcher location. For a website or content competitor, search your target keyword in regular Google search and check who ranks organically on page one, not just who you'd name if asked.
Two different competitor sets to track:
🛠️ Action Step: Run both searches today, one in Maps, one in regular search, for your top keyword. If the two competitor lists don't overlap much, you likely need to track them separately rather than assuming one list covers both.
A vertical-specific version of this is our guide to local SEO competitor analysis.
If you want to go deeper, our article on local SEO audit tools walks through the audit tools that surface local ranking problems fastest.
Start by searching your primary keyword in Google Maps.
Example: "plumber Chicago" or "dentist near me" from your business location.
The 3 businesses that appear in the local pack are your primary competitors. These are the ones you need to beat.
Also note:
This connects well with google maps competitor insights.
For each competitor, go to their GBP listing and record the following:
Business Name: Note if they include keywords in their name. (This violates Google's guidelines, but some businesses do it and it works short-term.)
Primary Category: What is their exact primary category? Is it more specific than yours?
Secondary Categories: Click on their listing and check "About", this often reveals secondary categories. Compare to yours.
Review Count: How many reviews do they have? What's their average rating?
Review Recency: When was their last review? Are they getting reviews consistently or in sporadic bursts?
Review Responses: Do they respond to all reviews, some, or none?
Photos: How many photos? What types (exterior, interior, team, projects)? How recent?
Services Listed: What specific services do they list? Are there any you haven't listed?
GBP Posts: Are they posting regularly? What types of posts? How recently?
Q&A: Do they have a seeded Q&A section? What questions are answered?
Attributes: What attributes do they have enabled?
Website Link: Where does it point? Is their website well-optimized?
📊 Flento Data: The top-ranking business in a local pack has an average of 2.3x more reviews than the business in position 3. Review gap is the #1 competitive factor.
After auditing all 3 competitors, look for gaps:
Review gaps:
Content gaps:
Category gaps:
Photo gaps:
Click through to each competitor's website. Quickly check:
💡 Pro Tip: If a top competitor has a slow website and weak schema, you have an opportunity to outrank them on the organic local results even if their GBP is stronger. Organic results support your local pack ranking over time.
After your audit, create a prioritized list:
Week 1, Quick wins:
Month 1, Review gap:
Month 2-3, Content and activity:
🔥 Quick Win: If your top competitor has unanswered negative reviews, take screenshots. Then write a response strategy for your OWN negative reviews that shows future customers how seriously you take feedback. The contrast will be visible to everyone comparing you.
A competitor audit is most valuable when it's done monthly, not once.
What to monitor:
Use Flento's competitor tracking tools to monitor multiple competitor profiles simultaneously and get alerts when they make significant changes.
Action Step: Right now, search your primary keyword in Google Maps. Open the top 3 results. Spend 10 minutes on each, just look at their reviews, categories, and photos. Write down 3 things each competitor is doing that you're not. That's your action list for the week.
✅ Done? Try Flento free →
How do I find my competitors for local SEO? Search your primary keyword in Google Maps from your actual business location and note who appears in the local pack and positions 4-10. Separately, search the same keyword in regular Google search to find organic website competitors, since the two lists don't always overlap.
What's the difference between a Local Pack competitor and a website competitor? A Local Pack competitor shows up in Google Maps results for your service and location. A website competitor ranks organically in regular search results for your target keywords and may not appear on Maps at all. Both are worth tracking, since they represent different searches customers use to find you.
How often should I audit competitor Google Business Profiles? Monthly. A single audit gives you a snapshot, but competitor review counts, photos, and posting activity change continuously. Monthly monitoring catches new gaps before they widen.
What is a GBP audit? A field-by-field review of a competitor's Google Business Profile, covering category selection, review count and recency, photo volume, services listed, Q&A, attributes, and posting activity, done to find gaps you can close or exploit.
Can website audit tools help improve my Google ranking? Yes, indirectly. Auditing a competitor's website for schema markup, NAP consistency, and page speed reveals organic ranking opportunities alongside the Local Pack gaps a GBP audit surfaces, and the two often reinforce each other.
Try Flento free →, Flento's competitor monitoring shows you how your GBP compares to local competitors across reviews, rankings, and profile completeness.
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