The Process Of Analysing Competition For Local SEO
Local SEO can quickly become a long list of individual tasks, but those tasks mean very little if you do not understand the businesses you are competing against in the local search results. Competitor analysis helps put the wider SEO strategy into context.
What A Local SEO Competitor Analysis Can Show
A useful analysis looks at which businesses are ranking highly, why they may be ranking, the customers and locations they appear to be targeting, how much effort has gone into their search visibility and where there may be opportunities to compete.
Understanding the techniques and level of commitment behind strong local rankings gives a business a clearer idea of what may be required in its own market.
Local Competition Is Different To National Competition
Local SEO generally targets a smaller and more geographically specific audience than national SEO. A national company may target hundreds or thousands of search terms, whereas a local business will often concentrate on a much tighter group of commercially important services and locations.
For service businesses, franchises and companies serving a defined area, the available market is also influenced by the number of people in that area who actually need the product or service.
Identify The Competitors That Matter
A practical starting point is to identify a small group of keywords that are essential to the business and see which companies consistently appear near the top of the results. These are often more useful SEO competitors than simply choosing the biggest businesses in the industry.
From there, compare their websites, service pages, location targeting, content, links and overall search presence.
Every Local Market Has Different Challenges
The number of keywords in a local competitive analysis may be smaller, but local search can have a major commercial impact on those terms. Each town and service area can present different competitors and different levels of difficulty, which is why local SEO needs to be considered market by market.