Your competitors' GBP profiles are an open book — and most businesses never read them. This guide shows you exactly how to audit competitor listings and use what you find to climb above them in local search.
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.
Here's the full process.
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:
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.
Start free → — Flento's competitor monitoring shows you how your GBP compares to local competitors across reviews, rankings, and profile completeness.
