Why Competitors Outrank You on Google Maps: A Search Result Teardown
By Clay Lawrence, Review Harvest · · 9 min video
The short version
To see why other businesses outrank you, pull a ranking report for your main search and open each profile above you. Check five things: whether the main keyword is in the business name, the primary category, whether an address is listed and how close it is to the center of the city, how many reviews they have and how often new ones arrive, and whether the website uses the service and city. In a teardown of appliance repair in Columbus, Georgia, the business ranking first had the most reviews, the keyword in its name, an address near the center, and no website at all.
Do this, in order
- 1
Pick the search to study: your service plus your city
Results for a search with the city name in it are different from results for the bare keyword typed by someone standing in that city. When the city is named, Google uses the center point of that city on Google Maps as the reference and favors businesses near it.
- 2
Use a rank tracker instead of your phone
Google personalizes results to where you are. A tool such as Local Brand Manager or Local Falcon shows how you actually rank across the area. Incognito mode helps a little, but it is not the full picture.
- 3
Open the business that ranks first and read its reviews
Note the review count and star rating, then check recency: how many reviews came in during the last month and when the latest one arrived.
- 4
Check the business name and categories
Look for the main keyword in the business name, then the primary category and the additional categories listed under it.
- 5
Check the address and its distance from the city center
See whether the address is listed publicly or the profile is a service area business, and how far the pin sits from the center of the city on the map.
- 6
Look at the website
Check whether there is one, then read the page title, the description and the headings for the service and the city. Count the pages: are there separate service pages and service area pages?
- 7
Repeat for the next businesses and compare
The same things come up each time: keyword in the name, a listed address close to where they want to rank, review count, review frequency and star rating.
- 8
Fix the gaps on your own profile and site
Put your main service and your service area in your headings, for example "appliance repair Columbus". Add service pages for what you offer and service area pages for where you work.
What should you look at on a competitor’s profile?
Look at the same short list on every business that ranks above you:
- Is the main keyword in the business name?
- What is the primary category, and which additional categories are listed?
- Is an address listed, and is it close to where they want to rank?
- How many reviews do they have, how often do they get new ones, and what is the star rating?
- Does the website use the service and the city, and does it have pages for each service and area?
The example below is one search, appliance repair in Columbus, Georgia, taken apart business by business. The point is to learn how to do the same with your own results.
Why does the city center matter?
Proximity is a huge ranking factor, and the reference point changes with how the search is typed.
If someone on the north side of Columbus types “appliance repair”, Google tries to show businesses around them. If someone types “Columbus, Georgia appliance repair”, or Google does not know where they are, it uses the center point of Columbus on Google Maps instead and gives a little preferential treatment to the businesses nearest that point.
This is also why your own phone is a poor judge of your ranking. Google personalizes results to your location. Use a tool such as Local Brand Manager or Local Falcon to see how you rank across the whole area. Incognito mode probably helps a little, but it is not the answer.
What the top three results had in common
First place. The business ranking first 79% of the time had 496 reviews and a 4.8 rating. Its reviews had slowed to two in the last month, though one had come in within the last couple of days, and it still had far more than anyone else. It had “appliance” in its name, Appliance repair service as its primary category, additional categories for microwave, oven, refrigerator and washer repair, and a publicly listed address close to the center of Columbus. It had no website.
Second. The next business had 87 reviews and a 5.0 rating, nowhere near as many reviews. It had “appliance repair” in its name, a listed address not far from the center, and a website. The site was basic: an about page, a gallery, not many pages and few keywords.
Third. Another business had 495 reviews and a 4.7 rating, with some bad reviews coming in recently. It also had “appliance” in the name and a listed address. Its average ranking was around fourth. The likely reason is location: its address was much farther from the center of Columbus than the other two. The gap between 4.7 and 4.8 stars counts for something, but it should not make that big a difference.
What to fix on a basic website
The third business’s site showed what a typical local site is missing:
- The page title still had “home page” in it. Remove that.
- The description had the keyword in it, which is good.
- There were two H1 headings, which is not how headings are supposed to be set up.
- One heading named a nearby military base instead of the city. Unless you know your customers search that way, name the city people actually type.
Include your main service and your service area in the headings, such as “appliance repair Columbus”. It will help you rank much higher. Then add service pages for each service you provide, and service area pages for each area you serve.
Is your market easier than you think?
Probably, if you are not in a major city. Places like Atlanta or Houston are very competitive and take a lot of technical SEO work. A town with 20,000 or 30,000 people, up to a couple hundred thousand, is usually far less competitive.
In the Columbus example, the leading sites were basic and one leader had no site. A new business there could put up a website, get a couple hundred reviews, have the service in its name, and likely start getting leads fairly quickly.
What comes through every time is the main keyword in the business name, a listed address close to where you want to rank, how many reviews you have, how often you get them, and your star rating. A service area business can still rank. It is just a little harder.
Common questions
Why does a competitor outrank me on Google Maps?
Open their profile and compare a handful of things. Is the main keyword in their business name? Do they list an address, and is it close to the center of the city? How many reviews do they have, how often do new ones arrive, and what is their star rating? Those came up again and again when the top results for one local search were taken apart.
Can a business rank first on Google Maps without a website?
Yes. In a teardown of appliance repair in Columbus, Georgia, the business ranking first 79% of the time had no website. It had 496 reviews at 4.8 stars, far more than its competitors, the keyword in its name, the right primary category and a listed address near the center of the city.
Does the city name in a Google search change the results?
Yes. If you are in a city and type only the keyword, Google shows businesses near you. If you type the city name with the keyword, or you are far away, Google uses the center point of that city on Google Maps as the reference and gives a little preferential treatment to businesses close to it.
How do I see where my business really ranks on Google?
Use a rank tracking tool such as Local Brand Manager or Local Falcon. Google personalizes the results on your own phone to your location, so what you see there is not what customers across your area see. Incognito mode helps a little but does not solve it.
Is it harder to rank as a service area business with no address shown?
A little. A service area business is fine, but the businesses at the top of the teardown each had an address listed publicly, and the ones closest to the center of the city ranked best.
What should a local service website have to help it rank?
Put your main service and your service area in the headings, such as "appliance repair Columbus". Add service pages that say which services you provide and service area pages that say where you provide them. The sites in the teardown were basic, with few pages and few keywords, which leaves room for a business that does this.
