Glossary
Local competitor analysis, defined.
Plain-English definitions of the terms used in local competitor analysis and local SEO: map pack, grid rank tracking, share of search, review velocity, local percentile and more.
- Competitor analysis
- Competitor analysis is the process of identifying the businesses you compete with and comparing them with your own business to find where you are ahead, where you are behind, and what to do next.
- For a local business, the useful comparison is the handful of businesses customers actually see when they search, measured on the things that decide who gets the call: reviews, map visibility, the Google Business Profile, the website and offers.
- Related:Local competitorShare of search
- Google Business Profile
- A Google Business Profile is a business's free listing on Google Search and Maps, showing its categories, hours, photos, reviews, posts and contact details.
- Profile completeness and activity (categories, photos, posts, services) affect both ranking in the map pack and whether searchers choose to call.
- Related:Map pack (local pack)Primary category
- Grid rank tracking
- Grid rank tracking checks a business's map ranking for one keyword from many points spread across its service area, instead of from a single location.
- Local results change with the searcher's location. A 7×7 grid (49 points) shows where a business wins and where it is invisible, which a single office-based check hides.
- Related:Map pack (local pack)Share of search
- Local competitor
- A local competitor is any business that appears when a customer searches for what you sell in your service area, whether or not it uses the same business category as you.
- A roofing company's competitors can include a general contractor that ranks for “roof repair” and lead sites such as Angi or HomeAdvisor. Lead sites are best tracked separately from direct competitors.
- Related:Map pack (local pack)Share of search
- Local percentile
- A local percentile ranks a measurement against the other businesses in the same local market, from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).
- A 4.6-star rating can be excellent in one town and below average in another, so comparing against the local market is more meaningful than comparing against a fixed standard.
- Related:Market score
- Local Services Ads
- Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ads for service businesses, shown above the map pack with a “Google Guaranteed” or “Google Screened” badge.
- Knowing which competitors run them explains why some businesses get calls despite weaker organic rankings.
- Related:Map pack (local pack)
- Map pack (local pack)
- The map pack is the block of usually three business listings with a map that Google shows at the top of results for local searches such as “plumber near me”.
- Most calls from local search go to businesses in the map pack, so map-pack position is one of the most important local ranking measures.
- Related:Grid rank trackingGoogle Business Profile
- Market score
- MarketMirror's market score is a 0–100 rating of how a business compares with its local competitors, calculated as a weighted average of local percentiles across six areas.
- The areas are reputation, search visibility, website, Google profile, ads and offers, and social and brand. Weights are set per trade; for roofers they are 25/25/20/15/10/5.
- Related:Local percentile
- Money searches
- Money searches are the search phrases that lead directly to paid jobs, such as “roof replacement Carmel IN” or “emergency plumber near me”.
- Competitor analysis should be based on these phrases, not on brand names or informational searches, because they are where customers choose who to call.
- Related:Share of searchLocal competitor
- Owner reply rate
- Owner reply rate is the share of a business's reviews that received a public reply from the owner.
- Replying to reviews signals that a business is active and attentive to customers reading the profile, and it is one of the easiest reputation gaps to close.
- Related:Review velocity
- Primary category
- The primary category is the main business type selected on a Google Business Profile, such as “Roofing contractor”.
- It strongly influences which searches a profile can rank for, so it should match what customers search for.
- Related:Google Business Profile
- Review themes
- Review themes are the recurring topics customers praise or complain about across many reviews, such as slow callbacks, cleanup or help with insurance claims.
- Competitors' complaint themes point to openings: if three of the top five roofers are criticized for slow callbacks, promising a same-day callback is a differentiator.
- Related:Review velocity
- Review velocity
- Review velocity is how many new reviews a business receives per month.
- Velocity often matters more than total review count: a competitor gaining 14 reviews a month will overtake one gaining 3, regardless of where they start.
- Related:Owner reply rateReview themes
See how these measures are used in practice in our local competitor analysis guide and the full competitor checklist.
See what your customers see before they call someone else.
Your first report is free. It takes about two minutes and no credit card.