Identifying Local Competitors: SERP-Based Discovery, Market Analysis, and Geographic Overlap

Your local SEO competitors are not necessarily the businesses you consider your traditional rivals. A business you compete with for customers may not rank anywhere near you in search results, while a directory site, franchise chain, or service aggregator you've never heard of might dominate your local SERP landscape. SERP-based competitor identification reveals who actually competes for your visibility in the search results your customers see.

Business competitors are companies offering similar services in your area. You know them—the plumber across town, the dental practice on the next block, the restaurant down the street.

SERP competitors are the entities that appear in search results for your target keywords. These may include:

• Direct business competitors
• National chains and franchises with local branches
• Directory and aggregator sites (Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack)
• Multi-location businesses from adjacent areas
• Service-area businesses without local storefronts

Your SERP competitors vary by keyword, by location, and by device. A competitor that dominates the Pack for "plumber Portland" may not appear at all for "drain cleaning Pearl District." The only way to identify your true SERP competitors is to check the actual results.

For each of your priority keywords, use LocalSERPChecker.app to check results from 5-10 locations across your service area. Record:

• The 3 businesses in the Local Pack at each location
• The organic results ranking in positions 1-10
• Any businesses appearing in AI Overviews
• Directory or aggregator sites appearing in results

After checking all keywords and locations, compile a frequency table: which businesses appear most often across your keyword set?

Your SERP competitors change based on where the searcher is. A competitor 3 miles north might dominate Pack results for northern neighborhoods while being absent from southern searches. Use geogrid-style tracking to map:

• Which competitors appear in the Pack at each geographic point
• Where your service area overlaps with each competitor's proximity advantage
• Neutral zones where neither you nor a specific competitor has a proximity edge

Group your discovered SERP competitors:

• Primary competitors — appear for 50%+ of your keywords across multiple locations
• Secondary competitors — appear for 20-50% of keywords or only in specific areas
• Emerging competitors — recently appeared; increasing frequency over time
• Directory competitors — Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack listings competing for organic positions

For each primary competitor, document:

• Business name and address (distance from your location)
• GBP primary category and review count/rating
• Website quality and local content depth
• Approximate domain authority
• Service area coverage
• Notable strengths (massive review count, strong website, many locations)
• Notable weaknesses (few reviews, incomplete GBP, outdated website)

Calculate your "Share of Voice" (SoV) in local search by measuring what percentage of Pack appearances across your keyword set belong to you vs. each competitor:

• Track Pack positions for 20+ keywords from 10+ locations
• Count how many times each business appears in position 1, 2, or 3
• Calculate: Your SoV = (Your Pack appearances / Total Pack slots tracked) × 100

This metric provides a single number representing your local search market share—trackable over time using historical data.

Using geogrid data, calculate what percentage of your target service area shows you in the Pack vs. competitors. This reveals geographic strengths and weaknesses that overall SoV averages hide.

If a competitor with fewer reviews and an incomplete GBP consistently outranks you in certain areas, their proximity advantage is carrying them. In areas where proximity is neutral, your optimization efforts will have the highest impact.

Compare your GBP completeness, review count/velocity, citation profile, and website content against each primary competitor. The largest gaps indicate your highest-ROI optimization priorities. See our detailed guide on competitive gap analysis.

Add your primary competitors to your rank tracking setup. Track their positions alongside yours to detect when they launch optimization campaigns, earn significant review batches, or expand their service areas.

Focus on 3-5 primary SERP competitors. Tracking more dilutes attention. Secondary competitors can be checked quarterly rather than continuously.

Directory sites compete for organic positions, not Pack positions. If Yelp dominates organic results for your keywords, focus Pack optimization (GBP, reviews) for above-the-fold visibility and ensure your Yelp listing is optimized for click-through from their results.

Competitor composition shifts gradually through new business openings, closures, and optimization efforts. Check your competitor landscape quarterly, or whenever you notice unfamiliar businesses appearing in your tracking data.

Yes. Check their review velocity, posting frequency, photo updates, and service additions monthly. Changes in their GBP activity often precede ranking movements.

Identifying local competitors requires looking at who actually appears in search results—not just who you consider business rivals. Use LocalSERPChecker.app to discover SERP competitors across keywords and locations, profile their strengths and weaknesses, and build a competitive intelligence system that informs every optimization decision.