The Local Competitor Analysis Skill: Know Exactly What You’re Up Against
Your client tells you their competitors are Company A and Company B. You’ve been optimizing against them for six months.
Then you pull the live local pack and find neither of them is in the top 3 anymore. Three businesses you’ve never analyzed are outranking your client. They’ve been there for months.
You have no idea what they’re doing differently. Your competitive strategy has been aimed at the wrong targets.
Competitive analysis starts from the live local pack — who is actually ranking for the specific keyword and location right now — not from assumptions about who the competition is.
What Changes With the Local Competitor Analysis Skill
The skill pulls who is actually ranking for the target keyword today. Compares GBP signals at the field level. Shows the exact gaps:
Not “they have more reviews” but “they have 218 reviews at 4.9★, you have 43 at 4.6★.”
Not “their profile is more complete” but “they have 7 secondary categories, you have 1. Here are the 6 you’re missing.”
Not “they respond to reviews” but “their response rate is 91%, yours is 14%.”
Quick wins separated from long-term gaps. An honest assessment of how long parity takes.
See It Work: Gap Analysis Against Live Local Pack
Prompt: "Who is actually in the top 3 for 'HVAC repair Dallas' right now?
Compare them to Comfort Air at 2341 Industrial Blvd Dallas TX
and give me the gaps ranked by what I can fix fastest."
Skills that fire: dispatch → local-competitor-analysis + localseodata-tool
Data pulled: local_pack, business_profile ×4, competitor_gap, backlink_gap
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS: Comfort Air — Dallas HVAC
CURRENT MAP PACK: "HVAC repair Dallas"
#1: Texas Climate Control | 4.9★ (218 reviews) | Completeness: 94%
#2: Dallas Air Experts | 4.7★ (167 reviews) | Completeness: 88%
#3: CoolBreeze HVAC | 4.6★ (89 reviews) | Completeness: 79%
Your position: #5 | 4.6★ (43 reviews) | Completeness: 61%
SIGNAL COMPARISON
Signal | You | Comp A | Comp B | Gap Level
Secondary categories | 1 | 7 | 6 | LARGE
Review count | 43 | 218 | 167 | LARGE
Review response rate | 14% | 91% | 78% | LARGE
Photo count | 8 | 52 | 38 | LARGE
GBP completeness | 61% | 94% | 88% | LARGE
Attributes claimed | 3 | 16 | 12 | LARGE
QUICK WINS (today — 30 minutes)
1. Add 6 secondary categories — 10 min
Missing vs. all top 3: "Air Conditioning Contractor", "Furnace Repair",
"HVAC Installation", "Indoor Air Quality", "Emergency HVAC", "Duct Cleaning"
2. Respond to all 29 unanswered reviews — response rate from 14% to 82%+
3. Claim 13 missing attributes — 5 min
MEDIUM-TERM (30–90 days)
4. Upload 44+ photos to reach competitive parity
5. Review generation campaign targeting 100+ reviews
HONEST ASSESSMENT
Texas Climate Control has a 175-review lead and 18 months of high response
rate history. Top-3 appearance is achievable in 6–9 months with consistent execution.
Quick wins will move rankings within 30–60 days. Full parity takes longer.One prompt. Live data. Specific gaps. Realistic timeline.
What Makes This Different from Manual Competitor Research
Live Data, Not Assumptions
The skill pulls the current local pack for the target keyword. Not who ranked there last month. Not who the client thinks are their competitors. Who is ranking right now.
This matters because local pack composition changes. A new competitor enters the market. An existing business optimizes and rises. Someone gets suspended and drops. Competitive analysis against last month’s pack is competitive analysis against ghosts.
Signal-Level Comparison
The output isn’t a general comparison. It’s signal-by-signal:
- Categories: Which ones do they claim that you don’t?
- Reviews: Exact count and rating, not “more” or “fewer”
- Response rate: Percentage, not “they respond to reviews”
- Photos: Count by type
- Attributes: Number claimed, which high-value ones are missing
This precision makes the gaps actionable. “Add 6 categories” is a task. “Improve your profile” is not.
Quick Wins Separated from Long-Term Gaps
A 175-review gap takes 12-18 months to close with a generation campaign. Adding 6 categories takes 10 minutes.
The skill separates these so the client (and you) understand what moves quickly vs. what requires sustained effort. A client who expects to match a competitor’s review count in 30 days will be disappointed. A client who understands it takes 12 months but sees ranking improvement from quick wins along the way stays engaged.
Honest Timelines
The skill provides realistic assessments: “Top-3 achievable in 6-9 months” not “you’ll be ranking #1 soon.”
This isn’t pessimism — it’s accuracy. Clients who understand the timeline plan appropriately. Clients given unrealistic expectations churn when those expectations aren’t met.
What the Skill Analyzes
Live Local Pack Composition
Who is currently in the top 3 for the target keyword and location? The skill pulls this in real-time and uses these businesses as the benchmark.
GBP Signal Comparison
For each competitor in the analysis:
- Completeness score — How complete is their profile vs. yours?
- Category configuration — Primary and all secondary categories
- Attribute coverage — How many of the available attributes are claimed?
- Review metrics — Count, rating, recency, response rate
- Photo presence — Count and types
- Description and content — Character count, keyword presence
Gap Identification
The skill identifies gaps at three levels:
- Universal gaps — What all top-3 competitors have that you don’t
- Common gaps — What 2 of 3 have that you don’t
- Potential gaps — What 1 competitor has that differentiates them
Universal gaps are the highest priority. If all three businesses in the top 3 claim “Emergency Service” and you don’t, that’s not optional.
Backlink Gap (When Connected)
With Ahrefs or LocalSEOData’s backlink endpoints, the skill extends to authority signals:
- Local links competitors have (chambers, press, sponsorships)
- Domain authority comparison
- Link opportunities from competitor analysis
Who Uses This and When
Every new client audit. Before proposing work, understand the competitive landscape. A market with three well-optimized competitors is a different engagement than a market with three underoptimized profiles.
Every ranking investigation. When a client asks “why aren’t we in the top 3,” the competitor analysis shows who’s there instead and why.
Any time a client’s market changes. New competitor enters. Existing competitor optimizes. Competitor gets suspended. Re-run the analysis to understand the new reality.
Regular competitive monitoring. Monthly or quarterly re-checks maintain awareness of competitive movement. If a competitor suddenly has 50 more reviews, you know about it.
New business pitches. Show prospects exactly what they’re up against. Competitive data in the proposal differentiates you from agencies presenting generic recommendations.
What You Don’t Get Without This Skill
Without the local-competitor-analysis skill, competitive research is manual:
- Pull each competitor profile individually
- Take notes in a spreadsheet
- Try to remember the comparison points
- Synthesize the gaps yourself
- Hope you checked all the signals
With the skill:
- Live local pack composition in one pull
- Signal comparison table
- Gaps ranked by priority
- Quick wins identified
- Timeline assessment included
The difference is accuracy, completeness, and time. The skill checks all signals against all competitors in 30 seconds. Manual work takes hours and misses things.
Get This Skill — It’s Free and Open Source
The local-competitor-analysis skill is part of the LocalSEOSkills library. MIT licensed.
Installation:
- Download LocalSEOSkills from GitHub
- Upload to Claude.ai or configure in Claude Code
- Connect LocalSEOData for live local pack data
- The skill is active immediately
First prompt:
"Who's in the top 3 for '[keyword]' in [city] right now?
Compare them to [Business Name] at [Address].
Show me the gaps and what to fix first."The analysis will show you the current competitive reality — not assumptions, not last month’s data, but who’s ranking now and what they have that your client doesn’t.
Skill Documentation
For technical details on how this skill works, what data it pulls, and complete prompt reference, see the full skill documentation.