Local Competitor Analysis Skill — Know Exactly Who You’re Competing Against

A pediatric dentist in Austin knows their competitors: the three practices they see at professional conferences, the office across town that just renovated, the long-established practice everyone’s heard of. But when you pull the actual map pack for “pediatric dentist Austin,” two of those businesses aren’t in the top 5 — and a practice the dentist has never heard of holds position #1.

SERP competitors aren’t the same as perceived competitors. The local-competitor-analysis skill identifies who’s actually ranking, compares GBP signals at a granular level, and surfaces the specific gaps that explain ranking differences.

What This Skill Does

The local-competitor-analysis skill enables Claude to pull current map pack composition for any keyword and location, retrieve and compare full GBP profile data for each competitor, run signal-by-signal gap analysis (categories, completeness, reviews, photos, attributes), identify backlink and authority differentials, check competitor AI visibility, and produce a ranked action plan by gap size and closability.

Prompt: "Who is in the top 3 for 'pediatric dentist Austin' right now?
Compare their GBP profiles to Growing Smiles Pediatric Dentistry and give me
the specific gaps prioritized by what we can fix fastest."

Skills fired: dispatch → local-competitor-analysis + localseodata-tool
Data pulled: local_pack, business_profile ×4, competitor_gap, backlink_gap

Output:
MAP PACK: "pediatric dentist Austin"
#1: Austin Kids Dental — 286 reviews, 4.8 rating, 92% complete
#2: Tiny Teeth Pediatrics — 198 reviews, 4.7 rating, 88% complete
#3: Hill Country Children's Dentistry — 154 reviews, 4.9 rating, 85% complete

Your position: #5 (Growing Smiles) — 89 reviews, 4.6 rating, 71% complete

SIGNAL COMPARISON TABLE
                          | Growing Smiles | Austin Kids | Tiny Teeth | Hill Country
Secondary categories      | 2              | 7           | 6          | 5
Review count              | 89             | 286         | 198        | 154
Review response rate      | 34%            | 91%         | 87%        | 78%
Photo count               | 11             | 48          | 35         | 29
GBP completeness          | 71%            | 92%         | 88%        | 85%
Attributes completed      | 6              | 18          | 15         | 14

QUICK WINS (today):
1. Add 5 secondary categories competitors have (15 min)
2. Claim 12 missing attributes (20 min)
3. Respond to all 58 unanswered reviews (2-3 hours)

MEDIUM-TERM GAPS:
4. Upload 20+ photos (target 40 total)
5. Review generation campaign (target 150 reviews in 6 months)

SERP Competitors vs. Perceived Competitors

Business owners identify competitors based on market knowledge. SERP competitors are the businesses actually ranking for target keywords — and they’re often different.

The map pack for “pediatric dentist Austin” might differ from “kids dentist Austin” or “children’s dentist near me.” Each keyword has its own competitive set. A business might dominate one query and be invisible on another.

The skill always starts with live local_pack data for the target keyword(s), not assumptions. This distinction matters: optimizing against the wrong competitors wastes effort. Optimizing against who’s actually ranking focuses effort on what will move the needle.

For practitioners, this means running competitor analysis on multiple keywords to understand the full competitive landscape. Position #2 for one keyword and #6 for another indicates keyword-specific optimization opportunities.

The Signal-Level Gap Analysis

Surface-level observations like “they have more reviews” don’t drive action. The gap analysis goes granular:

Secondary category count: “You have 2 secondary categories; competitors average 6. Missing: Pediatric Dentist (all competitors have this), Children’s Dental Clinic, Emergency Dental Service, Teeth Cleaning Service.”

Attribute coverage: “You’ve claimed 6 attributes; competitors average 16. Missing high-signal attributes: Wheelchair accessible, Kid-friendly, Appointment required, Online booking, Accepts insurance.”

Review response rate: “You respond to 34% of reviews; competitors average 85%. This is an explicit GBP engagement signal.”

Photo count and variety: “You have 11 photos; competitors average 37. Missing categories: treatment room photos, team photos, waiting area.”

GBP completeness: “Your profile is 71% complete; competitors average 88%.”

Each gap is ranked by two factors: estimated impact on ranking and closability (effort required to close). This produces the prioritized action plan.

Quick Wins vs. Long-Term Competitive Gaps

Not all gaps are equal. Some close in 15 minutes; others take 6 months.

Quick wins (same day, high impact):

  • Adding secondary categories: 15 minutes, immediately expands query eligibility
  • Claiming missing attributes: 20 minutes, adds trust signals and query matching
  • Responding to unanswered reviews: 2-3 hours, improves response rate signal

Medium-term gaps (30-90 days):

  • Photo uploads: Can add 20-40 photos in a focused effort
  • GBP completeness: Complete all remaining fields methodically
  • Review velocity improvement: Start generation campaign

Long-term competitive moats (6+ months):

  • Review count gaps of 100+: Requires sustained generation effort
  • Authority link deficits: Local PR and link building takes time
  • Established reputation advantages: Can’t rush trust signals

The action plan separates these tiers so practitioners know where to start. Quick wins first — they compound while you work on medium-term and long-term gaps.

Keyword-Level Competitive Variation

Running local_pack for multiple keywords reveals competitive variation:

Keyword competitive analysis:

"pediatric dentist Austin"
Top 3: Austin Kids Dental, Tiny Teeth, Hill Country
Your position: #5

"kids dentist Austin"
Top 3: Tiny Teeth, Growing Smiles, Austin Kids Dental
Your position: #2 (opportunity!)

"emergency pediatric dentist Austin"
Top 3: Austin Kids Dental, Hill Country, Westlake Dental
Your position: Not ranking (gap!)

Keyword-level analysis reveals:

  • Where you’re closest to top 3 (best near-term opportunity)
  • Where you’re not ranking at all (content or category gap)
  • Which keywords have a weaker competitive set (easier wins)

AI Visibility Competitive Benchmarking

The emerging competitive frontier is AI search visibility. Using ai_top_sources and ai_mentions reveals which competitors appear in AI answers.

AI visibility comparison:

ChatGPT mentions for "best pediatric dentist Austin":
- Austin Kids Dental: Mentioned, cited review volume
- Tiny Teeth: Mentioned, cited specialty focus
- Growing Smiles: Not mentioned

Google AI Overview for "pediatric dentist Austin":
- Austin Kids Dental: Appears in overview
- Hill Country: Appears in overview
- Growing Smiles: Not appearing

Competitors winning AI visibility have signals you may lack: Bing Places presence (for ChatGPT), strong entity signals (for AI Overviews), authoritative third-party mentions (for Perplexity).

This is competitive intelligence most practitioners aren’t tracking yet. Early action builds AI visibility before competitors recognize the opportunity.

Tracking Competitors Over Time

Competitive position isn’t static. Set up recurring monitoring to catch changes:

Prompt: "Run the competitor analysis for 'pediatric dentist Austin' again.
What has changed since last month?"

Output:
Changes detected:
- Tiny Teeth added 34 reviews (vs. 12 last month) — likely launched generation campaign
- Austin Kids Dental added 3 secondary categories
- New entrant: Pflugerville Pediatric now appearing at #6 (wasn't in top 10 last month)

Early detection enables response. If a competitor launches a review campaign, you can accelerate your own. If a new entrant appears, you can analyze their strategy while they’re still building momentum.

Quarterly competitive monitoring for existing clients keeps you ahead of market shifts.

Get Started

For immediate competitive analysis:

Who is in the top 3 for [keyword] in [city]? Compare their GBP profiles to
[Business Name] and give me the specific gaps prioritized by closability.

For multi-keyword competitive mapping:

Run competitor analysis for [Business Name] across these keywords:
[keyword 1], [keyword 2], [keyword 3]. Show me where we're closest to
top 3 and where the biggest opportunities are.

Claude returns the actual SERP competitors (not assumptions), granular signal comparison, and prioritized action plans separating quick wins from long-term competitive investments.

Learn More

To learn what this skill can do for your local SEO workflow, see the skill overview.