How to See What Your Google Business Profile Competitors Are Doing

Why Competitor Research Matters for Local Trades

If you do not know what the businesses ranking above you are doing on Google, you are guessing. And guessing is a slow way to grow.

Most tradespeople set up their Google Business Profile and then focus on their own listing in isolation. They add photos, collect reviews, maybe write a few Google Posts. All good. But they never look at what their competitors are doing. That is like preparing for a race without knowing how fast the other runners are.

Competitor research for local search is not complicated. You do not need expensive tools or marketing qualifications. You just need to know what to look at, where to find the information, and how to turn what you learn into actions that improve your own ranking.

Here is the full process, step by step.

Finding Out Who Your Competitors Actually Are

Before you can study competitors, you need to identify them. Your competitors on Google are not necessarily the businesses you think of as rivals in the real world. They are the businesses showing up when your potential customers search for your services.

Start by searching for your main service in your target area. If you are a plumber in Rhyl, search "plumber Rhyl" and "plumber near me" while physically in Rhyl (or set your location in Google settings). Note down every business that appears in the map pack. the top three results shown on the map.

Then search for variations. "Emergency plumber Rhyl," "boiler repair Rhyl," "bathroom plumber Rhyl." The map pack results may change depending on the specific query. Write down every business that shows up.

Do this for each town in your service area. A builder based in Wrexham should search in Wrexham, Chester, Ruabon, and any other town they want to work in. You will quickly build a list of ten to fifteen businesses that keep appearing.

These are your real competitors. the ones you need to study and eventually outrank.

Auditing Their Profiles: What to Look For

Now comes the useful part. Open each competitor's Google Business Profile and go through it systematically. Here is exactly what to examine.

Primary and secondary categories. Click on the business and look at the category shown below their name. Then check if they have additional categories listed. Google uses categories heavily in deciding which businesses to show for specific searches. If a competitor has categories you have not added to your own profile, that could explain why they are appearing for searches where you are not.

You can check a competitor's full category list by looking at their profile in Google Maps and noting the categories displayed. For a more thorough approach, tools like Pleper's GBP Category Tool (free) will show all categories a business has selected.

Review count and average rating. Count their reviews. What is their average star rating? Sort by newest. are they getting reviews regularly, or did they get a batch six months ago and nothing since? The pattern matters as much as the total number. Google values fresh, consistent reviews over a large stale count. Our guide on how many reviews you need to rank gives you specific targets.

Review content. Read through their recent reviews. Are customers mentioning specific services? Specific towns? Specific positive experiences? This tells you what keywords Google is associating with their business. If every review mentions "boiler installation" and you are not getting that term in your reviews, you are losing a relevance signal.

Also look at how they respond to reviews. Are they responding to every one? Are their responses thoughtful or generic? Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, is a ranking signal. If your competitors are doing this well and you are not, that is a gap to close.

Photos. Count their photos. How recent are they? Are they showing actual work or stock images? Google can tell the difference, and so can customers. A profile with fifty genuine work photos scores better than one with five blurry snapshots. This is one of the reasons GBP photos matter so much for tradespeople.

Google Posts. Are they posting? How often? What kind of content. offers, project showcases, updates? If a competitor is posting weekly and you have never made a post, they are getting an engagement advantage. Read our guide on Posts that actually get seen and start closing that gap.

Services and products sections. Does the competitor have a detailed list of services on their profile? Have they filled in the Products section? Many tradespeople leave these blank, so a competitor who has filled them in has a relevance advantage. Check our guide on the GBP Products section for how to set this up.

Business description. Read their description. Is it keyword-rich without being spammy? Does it mention specific areas they serve? Is it well-written or clearly AI-generated boilerplate? A good description helps both Google and potential customers understand what the business does.

Free Tools for Competitor Analysis

You do not need paid software to do this, though paid tools can speed things up if you are monitoring many competitors regularly.

Google Maps itself is the primary tool. Search, browse profiles, read reviews. It is all there. The vast majority of useful competitor information is visible on their public profile.

Pleper's GBP Category Tool is a free browser tool that reveals the full list of categories any business has selected. This is invaluable because Google only displays the primary category publicly. secondary categories are hidden but still influence rankings.

Google Search with specific operators can help too. Searching for a competitor's exact business name in quotes shows you every page where they are mentioned. This reveals their citation profile. which directories they are listed on, which local websites mention them, and how consistent their business details are across the web.

GMB Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that adds useful data to Google Maps results, including estimated search categories and keyword data. It is not perfectly accurate, but it gives you a quick overview without leaving Google Maps.

BrightLocal and Whitespark offer free-tier citation and competitor tools. BrightLocal's free local search audit shows you a snapshot of any business's local performance, including review counts, citation counts, and ranking positions for specific keywords.

Turning Research Into Action

Knowing what competitors are doing is only useful if you act on it. Here is how to translate your findings into improvements to your own profile.

Category gaps. If competitors are using categories you have not selected, add them to your profile (assuming they genuinely describe your business). A kitchen fitter who has not added "Countertop Contractor" as a secondary category is missing searches that competitors with that category are winning.

Review gap. Calculate the difference between your review count and the top-ranked competitor's. That is your target. If they have 65 reviews and you have 22, you need a plan to close that gap. Our guide on how to ask for Google reviews gives you a practical system.

Content gap. If competitors are posting regularly and you are not, start posting. If their photos show polished, well-lit work and yours are dark, blurry phone pictures, invest an afternoon in photographing your recent projects properly.

Service gap. If a competitor lists fifteen specific services and you have listed four, expand your services section. Be thorough and specific. "Boiler installation" is better than "Heating services." "Emergency pipe burst repair" is better than "Plumbing."

Citation gap. If a competitor appears on directories where you are not listed, get listed there. Keep your business details identical across every listing.

How Often Should You Check?

Do not obsess over competitors daily. That is a waste of time that would be better spent on actual work. But ignoring them entirely means you miss shifts in the local landscape.

A monthly check is reasonable for most tradespeople. Set a reminder on the first of each month. Spend thirty minutes searching your main keywords, noting who is in the map pack, and checking if anything has changed. new competitors appearing, existing competitors adding reviews or photos, changes in ranking positions.

A quarterly detailed look is worth doing. Once every three months, run through the full audit process above for your top five competitors. Look at trends. Are they accelerating their review collection? Have they started posting regularly? Have they added new categories or services?

If you are actively working to improve your rankings, perhaps after getting a free audit from us and implementing the recommendations, check more frequently during the first three months. Weekly searches for your target keywords will help you see the impact of your changes and adjust your approach.

What Competitors Cannot Tell You

Competitor research has limits. You can see public information. reviews, photos, posts, categories. You cannot see their analytics, their traffic, their conversion rates, or exactly which changes led to their ranking improvements.

You also cannot see the full picture of their backlink profile, their website authority, or their offline reputation without dedicated SEO tools. For most tradespeople, the public information is more than enough to identify actionable gaps.

The businesses that rank highest locally are rarely doing anything secret. They are doing the basics consistently: complete profile, steady reviews, regular posts, good photos and a website that reinforces their local relevance. If you can match or beat a competitor on each of those factors, you will match or beat their ranking.

The difference between the electricians ranking in the map pack and the ones stuck on page two is almost always consistency, not cleverness. Study your competitors not to copy them, but to understand the standard you need to meet. and then exceed it.

If you would like help identifying exactly where you stand against your local competition, get in touch for a free audit. We will show you the gaps and what to prioritise first.