Local competitors
A GMB competitor analysis compares your Google Business Profile with the other businesses a nearby customer could choose. The same job is also called a Google Business Profile competitor analysis, a GBP competitor analysis, or a local SEO competitor analysis. Keep the set narrow: the same kind of business, a short distance from your pin, and the fields a customer can see before they call. This page is that checklist. It also says which of those fields this audit measures, and which ones you still open on Google Maps.
The search box is on the homepage. Pick the business from the Google dropdown. A keyword is optional. 3 free previews every 24 hours, after an email. No Google login.
What the free preview includes versus the $9 report
What to compare
Start with the businesses Google already shows for the search you care about. In a private window, search the service plus the neighborhood and write down the map results and the first local organic results. Five listings is a working set. A longer list mixes in businesses that are not real alternatives. If you cover more than one neighborhood, repeat the search from a second point, because the person searching has moved.
Write down the primary category on your profile and on each competitor. If the set uses a more specific label than you do, verify that label before you change yours. Then list secondary categories, and add one only when you will answer the phone for that service. A category you do not serve pulls the listing into searches where a specialist looks like the better match.
Record the review count, the date of the newest review, the average rating, and whether the owner replies. A strong rating on a handful of reviews is a smaller sample than a similar rating on hundreds. A newest review from last year is quieter than one from this month, even when the totals are close. A specific reply under a critical review is stronger than the same thank-you pasted under every review.
Count the photos a customer sees, then look at what they show. A storefront, the team, and the work itself are more specific than a logo and three unrelated images. Note the newest photo date. Customer photos and owner photos sit in the same grid, so a count does not say who uploaded them or whether the library is current.
Check the date and the type of the newest post on your listing and on each competitor: an update, an offer, an event, or a product. A competitor posting an offer every week is using a field you are leaving empty. One post from a year ago is not an active profile. Compare the cadence.
Compare the named services or products, and whether each has a short description or a price. A name alone is hard to tell apart from a competitor's. A one-line description says what is included. Publish a price only when it is a price you will charge. A price that does not match the quote becomes a review you then have to answer.
Match the hours to the door, the website, and the message a caller hears. Compare a normal week, then holiday hours. A competitor who publishes special hours, while your listing goes dark on those days, can win the search even when your reviews are stronger. For a service-area business, use the hours you actually answer.
Read the public question box on your profile and on each competitor. Unanswered questions, and answers written by someone who does not work there, sit where a customer can see them. Note the questions that repeat, and answer those in your own words from the dashboard. Parking, price, and service area are the usual ones when ratings are close.
NAP is the name, address, and phone. The profile, the homepage, and the other places you control should show the same name, phone, and city. Open each competitor site and check that the phone matches the map pin and that the city appears in the title and the main heading. Write down mismatches. The website and the profile are often updated on different days.
Distance sits under every row. Google weighs how far the business is from the person searching, and that person is not always at your door. A competitor a few blocks from the searcher can outrank a fuller profile farther out. Read a gap with a distant business as a proximity fact first. Editing the profile does not move the pin. This audit records distance in miles for each sampled place and does not score it.
What the audit measures
The paid report compares the listing with up to 5 other places. With no keyword, those places share the primary type and sit inside an 8 km circle. If that type is generic, such as establishment or point of interest, or the type search is empty, the audit falls back to a text search from the business name, biased to 15 km. With a keyword, the places come from the center of a nine-point Places Text Search. Each probe is biased to a 6 km radius, can return up to 20 results, and the outer probes sit about 3.2 km out. That probe is not the local pack, and it is not stored as rank history. The report lists each place with its primary type, review count, average rating, and distance. The on-screen list also shows a photo sample of at most 10 references. Photos are weighted 0, so that sample does not change the score out of 100. When a median exists, 35 percent of the review-volume score follows a fixed band and 65 percent follows the median. A rating below the median is recorded as a gap. A primary type that differs from the most common type in the set is flagged so you can confirm the main service before changing it. Competitor names are not on the free preview. The score can already reflect a median gap or a primary-type mismatch.
The weight split and the review bands are written out on the Google Business Profile analyzer. A worked example of the table, using fictional names, is on the sample GMB audit report.
These fields are part of a thorough GMB competitor analysis. They are not in the automated sample. The GMB audit checklist is the dashboard pass for the ones that need owner access.
Run it on your listing
Benchmark your own profile first, then read the competitor sample beside it. The homepage search is the free preview: 3 every 24 hours, after an email, in any country. A single full audit is $9. Freelancer is $19/mo for 15 audits, and Agency is $49/mo for 60. The sample report shows the competitor table with fictional names.
On the homepage, type the name and pick the listing from the Google dropdown. Add the keyword customers type when you want the nine-point probe. Leave it blank for the nearby primary-type sample.
Enter an email to see the preview. You can do this 3 times every 24 hours. The screen shows a score, a grade, the weakest scored area, the finding count, and one finding. Use the checklist on this page for the fields the score does not cover.
The $9 report adds full score breakdown and evidence, local competitor benchmarks, prioritized fixes with measurable targets, and a 30/60/90-day plan and emailed PDF. Freelancer is $19/mo for 15 audits. Agency is $49/mo for 60 audits. Both put your logo on a white-label PDF. Freelancer PDFs keep a Powered by GMB Audit line. Agency PDFs leave GMB Audit branding off.
Pricing for freelancers and agencies
Run up to 3 free previews a day, on any business in any country. Unlock one full audit, or pick a monthly plan and audit every prospect without paying per report.
One full audit when you need it.
For freelancers auditing prospects every week.
For agencies auditing every client and prospect.
FAQ
The Google Business Profile audit page is the report overview. The Google My Business audit page uses the older product name for the same listing.
A GMB competitor analysis compares a Google Business Profile with nearby alternatives a customer could choose. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile, so a Google Business Profile competitor analysis, a GBP competitor analysis, and a local SEO competitor analysis are that same comparison. This page lists the fields to check by hand and the smaller set this audit measures.
Search the service plus the neighborhood and write down about five nearby listings. For each, record primary and secondary categories, review count, newest review date, rating, owner replies, photos, newest post, services or products, hours, Q&A, and whether the website repeats the name, phone, and city. Note the distance from your pin before you treat a gap as a profile problem. Then run your own listing from the homepage search.
The paid report uses up to 5 places. With no keyword they share the primary type inside an 8 km circle, or a name search biased to 15 km when the type is generic or that search is empty. With a keyword they come from a nine-point Places probe biased to 6 km and up to 20 results, with outer points about 3.2 km out. The report lists primary type, review count, average rating, and distance. The on-screen list adds a photo sample of at most 10, and that sample does not change the score. The probe is not the live local pack.
No. Secondary categories, review dates, owner replies, posts, services, products, competitor hours, and Q&A are not read. Reply rate is not scored. Your own hours are scored, and your own website is checked for name, phone, city, title, a single H1, and LocalBusiness schema. Competitor sites are not crawled. Those checks stay on this page and on the GMB audit checklist.
No. A local SEO competitor analysis compares public profile fields. Rank tracking stores map positions over time. This audit does not. A keyword runs nine Places Text Search probes that can cap the score and can name businesses ahead at those points. That is a relevance check around the business, not the pack on a phone, and not a week-to-week chart.
A single full audit is $9. The free preview is 3 times every 24 hours after an email, and it does not list competitor names. Freelancer is $19/mo for 15 audits, with your logo on the PDF and a Powered by GMB Audit line. Agency is $49/mo for 60 audits, and those PDFs leave off GMB Audit branding.
