In this section we will be going through all the variables of the business of your competitor that is available to be analyzed online. By properly analyzing the competition you'll then be able to use that information to better your business.

Can use a tool like GoHighLevel (link) to get reports on your competition. And can use a tool like SemRush (link) to analyze the keywords your competitors are using for SEO and the ones they are using in their Google Ads campaigns.

You want to first identify all the main competitors in your market. We recommend to make a list of the top 20 competitors in your region that offer services relative to yours. This allows you to get a good understanding of the current market.

Example: If your hair salon offers it's service in Montreal, you might want the 20 best hair salons in Montreal that offer the same style of haircuts/hairstyling as you do. Allowing you to a have a comprehensive understanding of the competition.

You can also identify some businesses that are similar to yours but aren't in the same area.

Example: If your business in in Montreal, you can make a list of the best hair salons in Toronto. This can allow you to get some information that no one else in your local market has.

Here are some of the different ways you can evaluate those competitors. You can use the list you made of your 20 local competitors as well as the ones outside of region and be able to analyze them further.

Collect detailed information on your competitors’ pricing, customer reviews, product or service offerings, and online presence. You can do this by using certain software's which will give you a complete report of all the publicly available information of your competitors.

We would recommend SpyFu (link) or GoHighLevel which has a reporting software within it (link)

Certain aspects of a business cannot currently be quantified or analyzed by a software. Things like the brand feel of the competitor, the design of their website, the style of their content on social media and so on.

What you can do is take a look at all your competitors website and social media and see trends that happen with the best ones and those aren't replicated by the less strong competitors. If you see a certain trend between the best ones, you can use that in your business.

You can use tools like BuzzSumo (link) to see which types of content generate the most engagement for your competitors. Could give you an idea on what you could do on your end.

Most of your competitors will have positive and negative reviews online. This is a great opportunity for you to understand which issues customers are having with their services or which things they really enjoy about their services.

Let's say you look at you top 20 competitors reviews, you'll then be able to compile the most common issues/benefits people are getting from that type of service. This can help you adapt your business and it's services as well as adapt how you present you services to your clients online.

Example: If you see that your competitors (in the roofing industry) are getting a lot of bad reviews about leaving the work site dirty. You can make it a point for your business to leave the sites clean after you leave them and you can mention that fact in your social media, website and so on. Allowing you to address customers concerns before they happen.

You can track the activity of your competitors on social media. How often they post, when they post as well as their engagement. You can use a tool like Sprout Social (link) to track your competitors activity on social media.

This can allow you to adapt your own strategy to better compete with them on social media.

If their share the information online, you can look at all your competitors pricing to see where you rank in there. Can then make you consider whether to raise or lower your prices. We don't have any software recommendation's for this aspect, but the best trick we have found is to look into the website of those businesses to potentially find their pricing. You can also, in some cases, see mentions of pricing in reviews online, giving you a general idea.

Analyze your competitors’ marketing campaigns, including email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and content marketing strategies. You can use software like SpyFu (link) to track competitors ad spend on Google or even social media ads.

In this section we will be going through all the ways you can improve your business to gain an edge on your competition. We'll cover the main ways you can surpass them and how to do it by using the information you collect from them.

One of the most important aspects of your business online is showing on Google and Google Maps at the top. This allows your business to get organic traffic, more leads, more revenue and better overall appearance online.

By understanding which keywords your competitors are ranking for, you can get a good idea on what could work for you. You can use tools like UberSuggest (link) to track the rankings of your competitors and get some insights on how to compete against them.

Your offerings are the core of your business's appeal. By enhancing what you provide, you can stand out in a competitive market and attract more customers.

Making your products or services more attractive is key. Add value by including features that your competitors lack, improving quality, or providing exceptional customer support. Bundling services or products into packages can encourage larger purchases by offering more value for money.

Running special promotions, such as limited-time discounts, can bring in new customers and retain loyal ones. Always gather feedback from your audience to refine your offers based on their needs and preferences.

Effective marketing is how you connect with your audience and stand out in the market.

Targeted advertising allows you to use competitor insights to focus on platforms and keywords that perform well for others. Content marketing is another powerful tool—creating blogs, videos, infographics, and social posts that address your audience's pain points helps engage and build trust with potential customers.

Social media engagement is a must. Simply being active on platforms can set you apart from the majority of your local competition. Regularly post content, respond to comments, and show you’re available and interested in new business opportunities.

To optimize your marketing, leverage tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, Mailchimp, or HubSpot. Monitor performance metrics to tweak and improve your campaigns based on results.

Staying ahead of the competition means offering products and services that meet the changing needs of your audience.

Conduct regular market research to identify trends and customer needs. Use this research to develop innovative offerings that solve problems your competitors haven’t addressed. Gather and analyze customer feedback, especially what your competitors are missing, to ensure your services stay relevant.

Keeping up with industry trends and technological advancements can open doors for new opportunities, helping you remain a leader in your space.

In this section we will be going through the secondary ways to improve your business relative to competitors.

Google my Business has strict guidelines on how the information you share on Google my Business needs to be presented. You can use this against your competition by reporting them for braking the guidelines of Google.

We go into this more in depth in our GMB training, but here are some tips on how to do it.

We believe the best strategy is to take a look at all your competitors. Look at their titles, descriptions, reviews and so and see where they are disrespecting Google's guidelines. You then, report every single violation to Google with a proper description and reference the the violation. You'll then be able, if you are correct, to get you competition penalized on Google.

We recommend doing all of these at once, by doing it all at once you might cause your competition to be removed from Google my Business and in turn lead you to rank higher than ever before, placing over those who violated Google's guidelines.

This is a tricky one to do properly, but what you can do, is look at all the dissatisfied clients in the comments of the social media posts of your competitors and recommend them your services or a solution to the problem they are having.

This can allow you to get some customers without needing to spend money on advertising.

A common strategy people use when building their Google Ads campaign is to include the name of their competitors in the keyword bidding. What this allows you to do is appear for their business on Google. This strategy is tolerated by Google and even approved by them as it gets business very good results.

One thing you need to be careful of, is that if someone was looking for your competitor but ended up seeing you, they might get confused or might contact you thinking you were the other business. Can lead to confusion, but overall is a productive strategy for most service businesses.

This falls into the same category of responding to your competitors social media comments. You can answer competitors reviews online, directing those unhappy customers to a solution from your business.

Although a more advanced strategy, it is one that can lead to great returns. You can create competitor pages on your website. Basically, they are pages titles ''Your Business vs Their Business'', this allows you a few advantages.

Once again, you can use a tool like GoHighLevel (link) to get reports on your competition. And can use a tool like SemRush (link) to analyze the keywords your competitors are using for SEO and the ones they are using in their Google Ads campaigns. As for reporting the competition, you will most likely have to that manually or hire a VA to do it for you.