Short version: search the job you want from where your customers are, write down the first three listings Google shows, and put yours beside them on one sheet: category, services, hours, photos, reviews, replies, and website. The gaps you can close yourself are your to-do list. You can't buy your way up, so this is about not losing the people who do find you.
What a comparison can and can't tell you
Google says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity," and that "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google" (source). So a side-by-side won't explain everything. A company closer to the searcher may show first no matter what you do. What it will show you is where your listing looks thinner than the ones next to it, which is usually the part you control.
Step 1: Pick the search, and where you stand
Use the words a customer would type, plus your town: "water heater repair Seguin," "AC repair New Braunfels," "diesel mechanic near me." Distance counts, so run it from a spot where your customers live, not just from your shop. Use your phone, the way a customer in a driveway would, and write down the first three businesses you see.
Step 2: Set up a sheet
Make five columns: the thing you're checking, then you, then each of the three. Fill it in from the listings, not from memory.
| Check | What to write down |
|---|---|
| Primary category | Exactly what Google shows under the name |
| Services | Which of the jobs you want show up as services |
| Hours | Listed or blank, and whether they say "open 24 hours" |
| Photos | Rough count, and whether they show real jobs and trucks |
| Reviews | Rating, count, and the date of the newest one |
| Owner replies | Whether the owner answers reviews, good and bad |
| Website button | Present, loads on a phone, shows a phone number up top |
| Posts | The date of the latest update, if any |
Step 3: Category and services
Start here because it's the least visible to you and often the most different. Google lets you pick categories and add services from its suggestions or write your own (categories, services). If the businesses ahead of you list the exact job you searched and you don't, that's a fix that takes a few minutes.
Step 4: Photos and posts
Look at what their photos actually show. Trucks with the name on them, finished work, the crew, the storefront if there is one. Google's photo guidance covers what you can upload and how (source). Then check posts: Google lets you publish updates and offers on your profile (source). A recent post tells a reader the business is active. A two-year-old one says something too.
Step 5: Reviews, and the replies
Don't stop at the star rating. Read the three newest reviews on each listing and notice whether the owner answered. Google lets owners reply to reviews from the profile (source), and replies are one column where any business can match the others this week. Whatever you do to catch up on reviews, don't offer anything for them: Google's policy says incentivized reviews aren't allowed and will be removed (source).
Step 6: Tap through like a customer
On each listing, tap the website button and the call button. Does the site load fast on your phone? Is the number at the top? Does the site name the job you searched for? You'll learn as much from a competitor's slow site as from a good one.
Step 7: Circle what you can fix
Go back through your column and circle every gap you can close without spending money: a missing service, blank hours, old photos, unanswered reviews, no recent post, a website link that goes nowhere. Leave the things you can't change, like distance, off the list. Come back to the same search in a month and fill in a fresh sheet.
Want us to run the comparison?
That's what our free Map Check is. Fill in a short form with your business name and phone, and we run the search for your trade in your town, then send a screen-recorded video, about 3 minutes, of your listing beside the three Google shows first, with the three fixes we'd make. It's free, and the fixes are yours to do yourself.